Problematic internet and cell-phone use: Psychological, behavioral, and health correlates

Abstract

This study aimed to assess pathological Internet and cell-phone use in college students, and to identify psychological, health, and behavioral correlates. A cross-sectional design was utilized to gather data from 337 students. We developed two measures, termed the Internet Over-use Scale (IOS), and the Cell-Phone Over-Use Scale (COS). Additional measures utilized were the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the General Health Questionnaire-28. Results provide support for internal consistency of the IOS and the COS (alpha=.88 and alpha=.87, respectively) as well as for construct validity. Logistic regression analyses indicated that heavy Internet use is associated with high anxiety; high cell-phone use is associated to being female, and having high anxiety and insomnia. The developed measures seem to be promising tools for assessing these new behavioral addictions.

Influence of social support on the impact of mobile phone dependence on anxiety levels of Chinese adolescents

“…It shows that uncontrolled mobile phone usage may increase anxiety of adolescents. These results are in agreement with those obtained in earlier studies by Jenaro et al [1,2,5,[26][27][28][29][30]. Adolescents with high mobile dependence level are more likely to feel sad after leaving the mobile phone.…”

Problematic mobile phone use in adolescents: derivation of a short scale MPPUS-10

“…Problematic mobile phone use (also known as mobile phone addiction, compulsive mobile phone use) has been documented for adolescents and young adults, whereby affected persons experience unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal when switching off their mobile phone or being out of range (Campbell 2005;Walsh et al 2007). In addition, a variety of adverse health effects such as depression, social anxiety, insomnia, hyperactivity or conduct problems have been associated with different forms of technology-overuse (Canan 2013;Cheung and Wong 2011;Jenaro et al 2007;Morgan and Cotten 2003;Thomée et al 2011). Behavioural addictions are like drug addictions characterized through maintaining abuse despite of its adverse consequences.…”

Prevalence of Problematic Mobile Phone Use in British Adolescents

“…23 The estimated prevalence of MPPU in adolescence ranges between 5.57% 22 and 33%. 19 This diversity in estimate reflects the various scales used in the studies, variations in the concepts being applied, as well as the different sources being used to develop the scales (substance abuse, gambling, and others): the Cellular Phone Dependence Questionnaire (CPDQ 16 20 or the upper and lower 30% to distinguish between excessive and habitual users. 19 Only one study has tried to establish a cut-off point of the problematic user 3 by means of classification function.…”

“…15 Those that are available have involved quite disparate conceptual language to describe the problem, such as dependence, 16 problem use, 1,10,15,17,18 excessive use or overuse, 14,19,20 addictive use, 12,21 or experiences related with mobile phone use 22 or mobile phone involvement. 23 On the whole, the estimated levels of MPPU range from 0% to 38%.…”

“…25 However, very few epidemiological studies have been conducted that focus on adolescents' MPPU, despite the fact that this population would seem to be most at risk, due to the poor impulse control that characterizes this developmental stage, as well as the increasing use of mobile phones as a device for the self-management of emotions, social and family life, and social status. 30 Several studies have been conducted in countries such as Thailand, 31 China, 12,21 Korea, 19 Turkey, 10,17 Spain, 15,20,22,32 Italy, 33 and Australia. 23 The estimated prevalence of MPPU in adolescence ranges between 5.57% 22 and 33%.…”