The Effects of Korean Parents' Smartphone Addiction on Korean Children's Smartphone Addiction: Moderating Effects of Children's Gender and Age.

Hye-Gyeong Son,Kyu-Hyoung Jeong,Heeran J Cho

doi:10.3390/ijerph18136685

Abstract

Background: Smartphone addiction among children and adolescents has a negative effect, as excessive use of smartphones can cause physical symptoms, such as fatigue, indigestion, and sleep problems, as well as psychopathological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and impulsiveness. Materials and Methods: This study was carried out using the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2019 conducted by the National Youth Policy Institute. The total number of participants was 4656 youths (2290 in grade 5 and 2366 in grade 8), and the dependent and independent variables were smartphone addiction in children and parents, respectively. Multiple regression analysis was conducted by Stata 15.0 SE. Results: First, the level of parents’ smartphone addiction affected that of children and adolescents. Second, the children’s and adolescents’ age affected the level of smartphone addiction, while their gender did not affect it. Third, the relationship between the levels of parents’ and children’s smartphone addiction was not moderated by the genders and ages of the children and adolescents. Conclusions: It was confirmed that as parents’ smartphone addiction increased, that of children increased, and smartphone addiction was found to increase in the second grade of middle school (12 years old) rather than grade 5 of elementary school (10 years old). Parents’ and children’s smartphone addiction was not moderated by children’s and adolescents’ gender and age.

Highlights

Necessity of ResearchDue to the advancement of technology and the rapid development of the internet, the number of mobile phone users continues to increase every year
Smartphones have become indispensable for most young people [2,3], and smartphone addiction has increased, especially among adolescents [4,5,6,7]
While previous studies have confirmed that the gender and age of children affect smartphone addiction [20,21,22,39], this study shows that children’s gender and age may not have a significant effect as moderator variables

Summary

Introduction

Necessity of ResearchDue to the advancement of technology and the rapid development of the internet, the number of mobile phone users continues to increase every year. More than seven billion people worldwide use mobile phones and smartphones. People’s need for connectivity and internet usage climbed from about 6.5% to 43.0% worldwide between 2000 and 2015; there was a sevenfold increase [1]. With this phenomenon, smartphones have become indispensable for most young people [2,3], and smartphone addiction has increased, especially among adolescents [4,5,6,7]. Adolescents at risk of overdependence on smartphones made up 30.2% of all South Koreans, adults (ages 20 to 59) made up 18.8%, and those in their 60s made up. Smartphone addiction among children and adolescents has a negative effect, as excessive use of smartphones can cause physical symptoms, such as fatigue, indigestion, and sleep problems, as well as psychopathological problems, such as depression, anxiety, and impulsiveness

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion