Problematic mobile phone use among youth athletes: a topic modelling approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study provided an exploratory investigation into problematic mobile phone use among youth athletes. The study aimed to identify the factors contributing to problematic use and effects of problematic use among youth athletes. 369 Singaporean youth athletes, aged between 12 and 19 years old, participated in the study. A structural topic modelling approach using the R package stm was used to analyse the data. The process generated a list of topics for each of the open-ended survey questions. Subsequent interpretation was done to label the topics and group them into higher thematic categories. The prevalence of problematic mobile phone use in the sampled population was 40.65%. The analysis produced 38 topics for factors and 36 topics for effects. For factors, the higher thematic categories were habitual/compulsive use, accessibility/utility, alleviation of boredom/moods, lack of control, coping with school/work, entertainment, and communication. For effects, the higher thematic categories were time wastage/insufficient time, distraction/loss of focus, sleep/tiredness, sport-related areas, and addiction. The study provided novel insight into issues surrounding problematic mobile phone use among youth athletes. Future research needs to be conducted to further investigate the topics and themes that emerged.