Psychosocial Factors Affecting Smartphone Addiction in University Students

Abstract

Smartphone addiction is a recent concern that has resulted from the dramatic increase in worldwide smartphone use. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate psychosocial factors affecting smartphone addiction in university students. The study was performed among students at the Ondokuz Mayis University Samsun School of Health (Samsun, Turkey) on October-December 2015. Four hundred ninety-four students possessing smartphones and agreeing to participate were included. A sociodemographic data form produced by the authors and consisting of 10 questions was administered together with a questionnaire involving the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), the Flourishing Scale, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The questionnaires were applied in a class environment at face-to-face interviews. SAS-SV scores of 6.47% of students were "significantly higher" than the participating group mean SAS-SV score. Multiple regression analysis revealed that depression, anxiety and insomnia, and familial social support statistically, significantly predicted smartphone addiction. Further studies of smartphone addiction in different age groups and with different educational levels are now needed.

How addicted are newly admitted undergraduate medical students to smartphones?: a cross-sectional study from Chitwan medical college, Nepal

“…Studies have shown bidirectional influence of smartphone and psychiatric conditions. Some suggest smartphone addiction can cause insomnia, restlessness, stress, depression and impulsive behavior, [22,23] whereas some studies show these disorders could facilitate smartphone addiction [24]. These conflicting evidences warrant further studies.…”

The relationship between addiction to smartphone usage and depression among adults: a cross sectional study

“…However, a negative association between smartphone addiction and depression was reported by another study [26]. Furthermore, another study stated that familial social support was a significant predictor of smartphone addiction, as this addiction increased as individuals’ familial support decreased [27]. There is no doubt that social relationships have been severely affected with the introduction of various social networks, and this phenomenon is commonly reported by the older generation who lived in the era before the introduction of smart phone technology.…”

“…There is no doubt that social relationships have been severely affected with the introduction of various social networks, and this phenomenon is commonly reported by the older generation who lived in the era before the introduction of smart phone technology. Unfortunately, there are gaps in literature on the probable association between smartphone addiction and social support [27]. Over usage of smartphones causes problems with attention and focusing, as these people are more likely to show more functional impairments that interfere with school, work and family life [28].…”

Smartphone Addiction and Social Support: A Three-year Longitudinal Study

“…Moreover, users who most frequently use social networks on their smartphone tend to develop addictive habits faster (Jeong, Kim, Yum, & Hwang, 2016). Numerous cross-sectional investigations have identified that users with lower levels of social support show also higher levels of smartphone addiction (Aker, Sahin, Sezgin, & O uz, 2017;Billieux, Philippot et al, 2015;Ihm, 2018;Kim, 2017Kim, , 2018Kwon, So, Han, & Oh, 2016;Lu et al, 2011). Longitudinal studies in this field are less frequent.…”