Gadget’s Addiction Scale: An Adolescents Analytic Survey

Abstract

Background –The use of gadgets among adolescents has some advantages. There has been a very significant increase in the use of cell phones, especially among teenagers. Gadget addiction will have an impact on social relationships, violent behavior,and mental health disorders.
 Purpose - This study aims to determine the characteristics of gadget and to determine the frequency distribution of gadget dependency levels.
 Design / methodology / approach – This study was using descriptive analytic. Samples in this study were adolescents and taken by multi-stage random sampling after being grouped by region. Sample that met the inclusion criteria was 86 respondents. Data collection in this study used an instrument in the form of a Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) questionnaire.
 Findings - The results showed that the highest level of gadget’s addiction in adolescents was low (34.9%), moderate dependence (33.7%), while for high dependence it was 14% and very high dependency 4.7%. 51.7% of male adolescents showed moderate gadget dependence symptoms and 56.7% of female adolescents showed low levels of dependence.
 Research limitations – This study has limitations, namely that the implementation was planned face-to-face due to the Covid-19 pandemic conditions, the implementation of the research was carried out through the network.
 Originality / value - This study produces data that is not yet available in the city of Bukittinggi regarding the level of gadget dependence on adolescents in 2020, and can be the basis for further intervention in groups of children with a level of gadget dependence, both for schools, as well as on families and individuals.