Psycho-demographic Characteristics as Predictors of Smartphone Addiction among Undergraduates of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

The thrust of the study was to investigate the use and prevalent of smartphone addiction among undergraduates of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria as well as examining the influence of psycho-demographic characteristics on students’ smartphone addiction. The survey research design was employed for the study. A sample of 600 undergraduates and six faculties were selected from the university using a multistage sampling technique. An adapted questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Smartphone Addiction among Undergraduates” (QSAU) was used to collect the data from the participants. The reliability test result of the instrument after trial-tested was 0.71% at a 0.05 level of significance. Percentages, Relative Significance Index (RSI), ranking order, t-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance, and multiple regressions were employed to analyse the data collected. The results showed a high prevalence rate of smartphone addiction among 124(20.7%) undergraduates. Educative information (0.801), charting (0.787) and sports and recreation (0.778) were the frequently information undergraduates sourced from their smartphones. Again, the results showed a significant influence of personality characteristics (F(5,546) = 51.870, p < 0.05); sex (the t-test = 0. -2.612; df = 598, p > 0.05) age (F(2,596) = 9.533; p < 0.05), students’ level (F(4,594); = 57.209, p < 0.05) and smartphone addiction among the students. Finally, the result showed that all variables contributed 65.3%. This indicated psycho-demographic variables greatly contributed to students’ smartphone addiction (R2 = 0.653; F = 57.209, p < 0.05). The study concluded psycho-demographic variables predisposed undergraduates to smartphone addiction.