Factors Associated with Smartphone Addiction Tendency in Korean Adolescents.

Ji-Hye Kim

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111668

Abstract

This study aims to identify the factors associated with smartphone addiction tendency in Korean adolescents. A convenience sample of 502 students from four middle schools participated in the survey for the assessment of demographic, personal factors (resilience and academic stress), environmental factors (parental support, teacher support, friend support, and bullying victimization), as well as smartphone addiction tendency. Smartphone addiction tendency was determined based on the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth (SAPS) criteria developed by Kim et al. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared test, t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and hierarchical logistic regression. Among the adolescents, 17.9% were in the smartphone addiction tendency group. The factors associated with smartphone addiction tendency were subjective economic level, academic stress, parental support, and bullying victimization. Based on the findings of this study, it is considered necessary to approach smartphone addiction management considering personal factors as well as environmental factors.

Highlights

Public Health 2021, 18, 11668.The National Information Society Agency (NIA) reported that 23.3% of smartphone users in 2020 suffered smartphone addiction in South Korea [1]
Of the 502 participants, 17.9% were identified as the tendency group for smartphone addiction and 82.1% were classified as the normal group according to the criteria of the N
The findings showed that the prevalence of smartphone addiction tendency among Korean adolescents was 17.9% and the factors associated with smartphone addiction tendency were subjective economic level, academic stress, parental support, and bullying victimization

Summary

Introduction

Public Health 2021, 18, 11668.The National Information Society Agency (NIA) reported that 23.3% of smartphone users in 2020 suffered smartphone addiction in South Korea [1]. Smartphone addiction refers to a state in which users cannot control their smartphone use by themselves, and experience withdrawal and tolerance for smartphone use due to excessive smartphone use, which causes disturbances in daily life [4]. Smartphone addiction is regarded as behavioral addiction and one of the problematic behaviors of adolescents [5,6,7]. Behavioral addiction refers to a continuous repetition of certain behaviors that cause physiological and psychological difficulties [6]. It can be characterized by loss of control, withdrawal, tolerance, mood modification, and conflict [6]

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Conclusion