Impact of Mobile Phone Usage on Academic Stress Among Nursing Students

Abstract

Background Mobile phone is a new form of communication. It has become an integral part of everyday life of the individual and affects their social life. Mobile phone overuse is a dependency syndrome seen among certain mobile phone users. Objective To assess the impact of mobile phone dependency on academic stress among nursing students studying in Khalsa College of Nursing, Amritsar, Punjab. Methodology A descriptive non-experimental research design was selected for the study. The study was conducted on 370 nursing students selected by purposive sampling technique. The tool used was an interview schedule that included sociodemographic profile of the respondents, a modified mobile phone dependency scale and a modified academic stress scale. Results The age range of 41.9% of the students was 19-20 years. Majority (94.6%) of them were females and 94.6% were unmarried, 54.3% were studying in Basic BSc nursing program. Maximum (71.36%) students hailed from joint families; 63.8% were residing either in their hometown or with their relatives; 52.7% of them had family monthly income above Rs. 20,000 and 78.94% owned one mobile phone. More than half of the students (58.10%) were mild mobile phone users. Academic stress of 67.30% students was of moderate level. Majority of the students (84.62%), who were moderate mobile phone users, were facing a severe level of academic stress. There was a significant association of mobile phone usage with age, nursing program and monthly family incomes at P < .05 level of significance.