The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students"

Allison Murphy
6 years ago
Views:

1 ISSN (Print) : ISSN (Online) : Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(41), DOI: /ijst/2016/v9i41/103844, November 2016 The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students Young-Sook Kwon 1 and Kyung -Shin Paek 2 * 1 Department of Nursing, Joongbu University, Geumsan-Gun, Chungnam, 32713, Korea; yskwon@jbm.ac.kr 2 Department of Nursing, Semyung University, Jecheon-City, Chungbuk, 27136, Korea; kspaek@semyung.ac.kr, Abstract Objectives: This study is to investigate the relationships among depression, communication competence and level of Smartphone addiction and to identify factors related to Smartphone addiction of college students. Methods/ Statistical Analysis: Participants in this cross-sectional survey were 293 undergraduate students. Data were collected from August 28 to September 15, 2015 using the self-report questionnaire. Findings: 14.7% of participants have a risk group of Smartphone addiction. Depression (r =.407, p<.001) was positively related to Smartphone addiction and communication competence (r = -.281, p<.001) was negatively related to Smartphone addiction. Depression (ß =.302, p<.001), communication competence (ß =-.148, p<.01), daily Smartphone using time (ß =.144, p<.01), grade (ß =.136, p<.01), academic achievement (ß =.119, p<.05) and gender (ß =.117, p<.05) were identified as significant predictors of Smartphone addiction. Improvements/Applications: These findings support the importance of establishing intervention strategies designed to decrease depression of students to help them prevent Smartphone addiction. Keywords: Addiction, College Student, Communication, Competence, Smartphone 1. Introduction Smartphone is rapidly widespread which is not limited by time and place as a miniature mobile computer and is conveniently used 1. The Smartphone penetration rate is reported to reach about 84.1% of household in Korea, It is used for messenger, voice call, surfing the web and taking photos as well as SNS 3. Especially, young people expand their opportunities for making social relationships using Smartphone 4. It has become one of the most important academic and recreational tools for adolescents and young adults 5. With the greater availability of the Smartphone, excessive Smartphone use for adolescents and young adults can lead to many problems such as low academic achievement 6, interpersonal distress 7 and maladjustment of school life 8, sleeping disturbance 9, depression 10, psychological distress 11 and Smartphone addiction 1. The Smartphone addiction refers to having a disturbance in one s daily lives and resistance to Smartphones and withdrawal symptoms by excessive Smartphone use 12. By the data derived from National Information Society Agency 12, the rate of a risk group for Smartphone addiction increased from 11.8% in 2013 to 14.2% in % of teenage, 3.4% of the twenties were a high- risk group for Smartphone addiction and were reported 3 times of high-risk group rate for forties. Also, according to occu- *Author for correspondence

2 The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students pational categories, college students have the highest rate of risk group to Smartphone addiction. People with Smartphone addiction may encounter difficulties with interpersonal adjustments 13 and experience greater difficult with face-to-face communication 14, 15. Previous studies 1,3,6,16,17 has demonstrated that socialenvironmental factors such as parent-child relationship, child-rearing attitude, communication pattern, attachment, relationship with friends, adjustment of school life, academic achievement have a significant effect on mobile phone addiction for an adolescent. Psychological factors such as impulsivity, depression, loneliness, self-efficacy, self-control, self-esteem, stress may be significantly associated with mobile phone addiction. However, the studies about the relationship of Smartphone addiction with social-environmental factors and psychological factors are still under debate and it requires a further research 16,18. In the past several years, most of the studies have been conducted on a mobile phone and Internet addiction 19. Little research has specifically explored Smartphone addiction 1. Most studies about Smartphone addiction focus on adolescent, instead of college students 20. College life is a transition period from adolescent to adult and a major life change. Students have more freedom of life, lots of time than in adolescents and are free to use Smartphone 21,22. They can suffer from job seeking, economic problems, romantic relationships, moving to independent lifestyle and vale establishing as an adult 22,23. To run away from these problems, they can immerse themselves in the use of a Smartphone and are more likely to addict to a Smartphone than other age groups 24. Therefore, this study is to investigate the relationships among depression, communication competence and level of Smartphone addiction and to evaluate factors related to Smartphone addiction of college students. 2. Materials and Methods The participants were college students aged years who were attending the university of J city in Korea. This study involved 293 undergraduate students conveniently selected. Data were collected by using questionnaires. Smartphone addiction was evaluated using instrument developed from National Information Society Agency (NISA) 12. It consists of 15 items with a 4-point scale. NISA suggested the classification of the total score into 3 groups: A general group (those who total score 39 or less), a potential risk group (those who total score between 40 and 43) and a high-risk group (those who total score 44 or higher). The Cronbach s alpha reliability coefficient was.86. Depression was assessed based on Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) 25. It consists of 21 items with a 4-point scale. A total BDI-II score of 14 or higher indicates clinically significant depression. The Cronbach s alpha reliability coefficient was.90. Communication competence was measured using scale developed by 26. It consists of 15 items with a 5-point scale. The Cronbach s alpha reliability coefficient was.85. Data were analyzed descriptively to examine the general characteristics of the participants, the level of Smartphone addiction, depression and communication competence. ANOVA and t-test were conducted to examine the Smartphone addiction based on the general characteristics of the participants. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to ascertain the relationship between the Smartphone addiction, depression and communication competence. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the influencing factors of Smartphone addiction. All analyses were evaluated using a.05 level of significance. 3. Results 3.1 Smartphone Addiction based on the General Characteristics of the Participants As shown in Table 1, of the 293 college students, 57.0% of participants (n = 167) were male, 43.0% (n = 126) were female. Mean age was 20.2 (±2.04) years and 47.4% (n = 139) were freshmen. A result of examining the differences in Smartphone addiction by general characteristics, there were significant differences by gender (t = 3.98, p<.001), age (F = 3.12, p =.045), grade (F = 7.28, p<.001), major (F 2 Indian Journal of Science and Technology

3 Young-Sook Kwon and Kyung -Shin Paek Table 1. Smartphone addiction based on the characteristics of the participants (N = 293) Variables Categories Number Percentage (%) Mean (±SD) t or F Schaffer s Gender Male (±7.03) Female (±6.95) -3.98*** Age (years) (±7.16) (±6.60) (±8.60) 3.12* 1st a (±6.61) Grade 2nd b (±7.19) 3rd c (±6.66) 7.28*** a<d Major # 4th d (±8.38) Humanities and Social Sciences a (±6.25) Natural sciences b (±7.84) Health and Medical Sciences c (±6.88) Physical Education and Art (±11.63) 4.93** a<c Academic achievement Good a (±8.35) Moderate b (±6.69) Poor c (±6.84) 7.91*** a, b<c Daily Smartphone using time (minute) 300 a (±7.19) b (±6.23) 601 c (±7.04) 11.53*** a<b, c Note. # Physical education and art are excluded from ANOVA. * P<.05, ** P<.01, *** P<.001 Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3

4 The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students = 4.93, p =.008), academic achievement (F = 7.91, p<.001) and daily Smartphone using time (F = 11.53, p<.001). 3.2 Smartphone Addiction, Depression and Communication Competence As shown in Table 2, the mean of Smartphone addiction was (±7.17), depression was (±8.71), communication competence was (±7.84). As shown in Table 3, as for the Smartphone use level of participants, a high-risk group, a potential risk group and a general group were 5.1%, 9.6%, and 85.3% respectively. As shown in Table 4, the proportion of participants with depression was 29.9% and as for the depression level of participants, mild depression, moderate depression and severe depression were 16.0%, 11.9% and 2.0% respectively. Table 2. Smartphone addiction, depression and communication competence (N = 293) Variables Mean(±SD) Minimum Maximum Smartphone addiction 32.51(±7.17) Depression 32.51(±7.17) 0 60 Communication competence 50.43(±7.84) Table 3. Classification of Smartphone addiction (N = 293) Score Group Number Percentage (%) 39 General group Potential risk group High risk group Table 4. Classification of depression by Beck Depression Inventory-II (N = 293) Score Group Number Percentage (%) 0-13 Normal Mild depression Moderate depression Severe depression Indian Journal of Science and Technology

5 Young-Sook Kwon and Kyung -Shin Paek 3.3 Correlations between Smartphone Addiction, Depression and Communication Competence As shown in Table 5, there were significant correlations between the scores for Smartphone addiction, depression and communication competence. A significant positive correlation was found between Smartphone addiction and depression (r=.407, p<.001). Smartphone addiction (r = -.281, p<.001) and depression (r = -.303, p<.001) correlated negatively with communication competence. 3.4 Predictors on the Smartphone Addiction As shown in Table 6, a hierarchical multiple regressions analysis was used to ascertain the relation of six predictors to the dependent variable of Smartphone addiction. Model 1 showed that Smartphone addiction was significantly predicted by gender (ß =.228) and grade (ß = -.157). In Model 2, gender (ß =.180), grade (ß =.153), academic achievement (ß =.209) and daily smart phone using time (ß =.149) were significant. In Model 3, depres- Table 5. Correlations between Smartphone addiction, depression and communication competence (N = 293) Smartphone addiction Smartphone addiction 1 Depression Communication competence Depression.407*** 1 Communication competence -.281*** -.303*** 1 Table 6. Predictors on the Smartphone addiction (N = 293) Variables Model I Model II Model III ß t ß t ß t Constant 53.68*** 37.77*** 12.04*** Gender *** *** * Grade ** ** ** Academic achievement *** * Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5

6 The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students Table 6 Continued Daily Smartphone using time ** ** Depression *** Communication competence ** R 2 =.070 F = 12.03*** R 2 =.128 F = 11.69*** R 2 =.251 F = 17.30*** sion (ß =.302), communication competence (ß = -.148), a daily Smartphone using time (ß =.144), grade (ß =.136), academic achievement (ß =.119) and gender (ß =.117), were significant. The higher score of depression, the longer the time of daily Smartphone usage and the higher the grade, the lower score of communication competence; the lower the academic achievement and female had a higher score of Smartphone addiction. 25.1% of the variance of Smartphone addiction was explained by these six predictors and the overall F-score of multiple regression Model 3 was significant (F = , p<.001). 4. Discussion 14.7% of participants in the study appeared to have a risk group of smartphone addiction. Research on the college students used the same instrument in Korea found that proportion of risk group in smartphone addiction ranged from 21% to 27% 15,23. Compared with these studies, the proportion of risk group of smartphone addiction in the present study is much lower. This finding resulted from participants. The subjects of previous studies 15, 23 were composed of mostly female students and they reported that female students had more addictive to a smartphone than male students. In this study, the level of smartphone addiction to students differed significantly by gender. It is possible that there might have been related to the proportion of a risk group of smartphone addiction. In this study, smartphone addiction and depression were determined as positively correlated, depression was found to be the most effective factor of addiction to a smartphone. This result is consistent with prior studies 24, 27, 28 that depressive people tend to use the smartphone more and are inclined to develop a smartphone addiction. Comorbidity of depression in smartphone and internet addiction has been shown in various studies 11,18,27,28. Thus identifying students with depression and providing them with appropriate supportive services may help them to prevent addiction to a smartphone. Communication competence is defined as a knowledge, skill, and motivation about communication which is accompanied with appropriateness and effectiveness 26. The present study demonstrated that smartphone addiction was negatively associated with communication competence and communication competence was identified as a significantly influencing factor to smartphone addiction. It is consistent with the result of Lee 29 which reported that groups of lower communication competence have higher degree SNS addiction of smartphone. Kim 30 reported the higher levels of the web media experience are, the lower mean of the communication competence are. Also, the research of Cho and Kim 31 reported that communication competence was related to media usage such as TV, internet. However, it runs contrary to the result from Kim 15 who found that the smartphone use level didn t have a significant difference with communication competence. Communication competence is absolutely required for college students to carry out an effective learning and a successful life in the society 6 Indian Journal of Science and Technology

7 Young-Sook Kwon and Kyung -Shin Paek based on knowledge 15. Also, improving communication competence induces students to control of media overuse 31. To prevent the addictive use of a smartphone, it needs to develop programs for promoting of communication competence. In this study, a daily smartphone using time was a significantly effective factor to smartphone addiction. Using smartphone too much can be out of self-control and cause the smartphone usage continuously 1, 10, 14, 28, 32. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a program such as applications to perceive the habit of using a smartphone of one s own and check the amount of smartphone use. Furthermore, it requires promoting the proper use of a smartphone. Our study has shown grade was a significantly predictor for smartphone addiction, that is, the higher the grade, the more smartphone addiction. However, results in Bian et al. 1 indicated that earlier students of college were susceptible to smartphone addiction. Academic achievement was identified as a significantly influencing factor to smartphone addiction in this study. This result is consistent with reports of previous studies that people with smartphone addiction may encounter difficulty with academic performance 5. This study has shown significantly higher levels of smartphone addiction in female students, gender was found a significant predictor for smartphone addiction. The previous findings 23, 27 indicated that there is a gender difference in smartphone behavior and female students are liable to smartphone addiction. Therefore, future study is need to identify that the relationship between smartphone addiction and behavior of smartphone according to gender. The general traits and the variables including depression and communication competence accounted for 25.5% of smartphone addiction. Since depression and communication competence were important factors to predict of smartphone addiction, it is necessary to detect students with depression early and prepare practical programs to reduce effectively depression. Also, it will be helpful to prevent smartphone addiction if programs to strengthen communication competence are provided to be available to many students. 5. Conclusion This study has attempted to provide a basic data for developing effective programs to prevent Smartphone addiction of college student by figuring out the level of Smartphone addiction and relationship of Smartphone addiction with depression and communication competence and identify the predictive factors affecting Smartphone addiction. In our study, it was found out that depression and communication competence are the factors significantly influencing Smartphone addiction of students. From these results, we propose the necessity of preventing programs for Smartphone addiction of students, considering individual psychosocial aspects such as depression and communication competence. 6. References 1. Bian M, Leung L. Linking loneliness, shyness, Smartphone addiction symptom and patterns of Smartphone use to social capital. Social Science Computer Review Feb; 33(1): The Smartphone penetration rate - catches up with PC Available from: home/3/0112/ / /2 3. Wang JL, Wang HZ, Gaskin J, Wang LH. The role of stress and motivation in problematic Smartphone use among college students. Computers in Human Behavior Dec; 53: Igarashi T, Takai J, Yoshida T. Gender differences in social network development via mobile phone text messages: a longitudinal study. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Oct; 22(5): Hong FY, Chiu SI, Huang DH. A model of the relationship between psychological characteristics, mobile phone addiction and use of mobile phones by Taiwanese university female students. Computers in Human Behavior Nov; 28(6): Roberts JA, Pullig C, Manolis C. I need my Smartphone: A hierarchical model of personality and cell-phone addiction. Personality and Individual Difference Jun; 79: Takao M, Takahashi S, Kitamura M. Addictive personality and problematic mobile phone use. Cyber Psychology and Behavior Oct; 12(5): Choi HS, Lee HK, Ha JC. The influence of Smartphone addiction on mental health, campus life and personal relations - Focusing on K university students. Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society Sep; 23(5): Ahn SY, Kim YJ. The influence of Smartphone use and stress on quality of sleep among nursing students. Indian Journal of Science and Technology Dec; 8(35): Thomee S, Harenstam A, Hagberg M. Mobile phone use and stress, sleep disturbance and symptoms of depression among young adult - A prospective cohort study. BMC Public Health Dec; 11(1):66. Indian Journal of Science and Technology 7

8 The Influence of Smartphone Addiction on Depression and Communication Competence among College Students 11. Thomee S, Eklof M, Gustafsson E, Nilsson R, Hagberg M. Prevalence of perceived stress, symptoms of depression and sleep disturbances on relation to information and communication technology use among young adults - An explorative prospective study. Computers in Human Behavior May; 23(3): The research on the actual condition of Internet addiction in Available from: board_view.asp?boardid= &order= &id= Chiu SI. The relationship between life stress and Smartphone addiction on Taiwanese university student: A mediation model of learning self-efficacy and social self-efficacy. Computers in Human Behavior May; 34: Billieux J, Linden MVD, Rochat L. The role of impulsivity in actual and problematic use of the mobile phone. Applied Cognitive Psychology Dec; 22(9): Kim SM. Smartphone use level of nursing college students the relationship between communication competence, social avoidance and distress. [Unpublished master s thesis]: Daejeon, Korea: Chungnam National University; You MS, Kwon M. The comparative study on mother s rearing attitude and communication among mother and student between mobile phone addiction group and nonaddiction group: Middle school students. Korean Parent Child Health Jun; 14(1): Wu AMS, Cheung VI, Ku L, Hung EPW. Psychological risk factors of addiction to social networking sites among Chinese Smartphone users. Journal of Behavioral Addictions Sep; 2(3): Guo J, Chen L, Wang X, Liu Y, Chui CHK, He H, Qu Z, Tian D. The relationship between internet addiction and depression among migrant children and left-behind children in China. Cyber Psychology Behavior and Social Networking Nov; 15(11): Leung L. Linking psychological attributes to addiction and improper use of the mobile phone among adolescents in Hong Kong. Journal of Children and Media Jun; 2(2): Lee BI, Kim YJ, Bae JY, Woo SK, Woo HN, Lee SM. The relationship between Smartphone usage time and physical and mental health of university students. Journal of the Korean Society of School Health Apr; 26(1): Yun JY, Moon JS, Kim MJ, Kim YJ, Kim HO, Huh BL. Smartphone addiction and health problem in university student. Journal for Korean Association for Crisis and Emergency Management Dec; 3(2): Compas BE, Wagner BM, Slavin LA, Vannatta K. A prospective study of life events, social support and psychological symptomatology during the transition from high school to college. American Journal of Community Psychology Jun; 14(3): Jeon HS, Jang SO. A study on the influence of depression and stress on Smartphone addiction among university students: Focused on moderating effect of gender. Korean Journal of Youth Studies Aug; 21(8): Kim MO, Kim HJ, Kim KS, Ju SJ, Choi JH, Yu M. Smartphone addiction (Focused depression, aggression and impulsion) among college students. Indian Journal of Science and Technology Oct; 8(25): Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. Manual for the BDI-II, The psychological corporation; Texas Hur GH. Construction and validation of a global interpersonal communication competence scale. Korean Journal of Journalism and Communication Studies Dec; 47(6): Hwang KH, Yoo YS, Cho OH. Smartphone overuse and upper extremity pain, anxiety, depression and interpersonal relationships among college students. Journal of the Korea Contents Association Oct; 12(10): Jeon M. Effects of communication apprehension and depression vulnerability on college students Smartphone overuse. [Unpublished master s thesis]. Jeonju, Korea: Jeonju University; Lee SJ. The effects of communications among peers and social anxiety on SNS addictions in using Smartphone in middle school students. [Unpublished master s thesis]. Yongin, Korea: Dankook University; Kim SB. A study of webmedia experience and communication competence - Viewed in media ecological approach. [Unpublished master s thesis]. Seoul, Korea: Chung-Ang University; Cho YK, Kim YS. Adolescents media use and academic achievement. Korean Journal of Broadcasting. 2009; 23(5): Billieux J, Linden MVD, D acremont M, Ceschi G, Zermatten A. Does impulsivity relate to perceived dependence on and actual use of the mobile phone? Applied Cognitive Psychology May; 21(4): Indian Journal of Science and Technology

A STUDY ON SMART PHONE USAGE AMONG YOUNGSTERS AT AGE GROUP (15-29)

A STUDY ON SMART PHONE USAGE AMONG YOUNGSTERS AT AGE GROUP (15-29) R. Lavanya, 1 st year, Department OF Management Studies, Periyar Maniammai University, Vallam,Thanjavur Dr. K.V.R. Rajandran, Associate