Evaluation of Nomophobia and Loneliness in High School Students in Turkey

Abstract

Abstract Background Nomophobia, short for “no mobile phone phobia”, is defined as having an involuntary and unreasonable fear when the mobile device is unreachable or uncommunicable. Students who are going through the puberty are vulnerable to nomophobia. In the study we aimed to evaluate nomophobia and loneliness levels of high school students. Methods This cross - sectional study was conducted in the first academic semester of 2018 and 850 high school students in Eskisehir constituted the study group. To evaluate the nomophobia levels of the students, Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) and to evaluate the loneliness levels, UCLA Loneliness Scale was used. The questionnaire prepared in accordance with the literature was filled out by the students under the observation of the researchers. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, Spearman Correlation analyses and Multiple Linear Regression was used. P values less than 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results In the study group, 429 (50.5%) were female and 421 (49.5%) were male and their ages ranged from 13 to 19, the mean age (SD) was 15.66 (1.18) years. The mean score (SD) obtained from NMP-Q was 54.92 (14.87) while the mean score (SD) obtained from UCLA loneliness scale was 13.95 (4.60). Advanced analysis showed that; in females, in those who first used smartphone before the age of 13 and in those who have more friends on social medias than in real life nomophobia levels were higher. It was also found that the students' nomophobia levels increase with the the number of times they check their phones and the amount of time they spent on their smart phones (F = 28.424, P < 0.001, R²=0.213). There was a positive weak correlation between nomophobia and loneliness levels (r = 0.353, p = 0.001). Conclusions It was concluded that nomophobia is an important public health issue among adolescents. Factors that can be changed, such as phone use habits and loneliness was important determinants for nomophobia. Key messages Nomophobia may affect the adolescents’ daily but most importantly school life negatively. It might be helpful to plan education programs to raise awareness among the students, parents and teachers for reducing the nomophobia.