Parental Attitudes and Socio-demographic Factors as Predictors of Smartphone Addiction in University Students

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine predictive effect of parental attitudes and socio-demographic variables (age, gender, time spent on smartphone, number of siblings, students’ feeling social, and parental education level) in university students’ addiction to smartphones. Participants included 670 university students whose age ranged between 18-30 years (M=21.6, SD=6.3). Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) and Parental Attitude Scale (PAS) and Socio-Demographic Information Form were used to collect data. The results showed that age, gender, parental education level, time spent on smartphone, number of siblings, and state of feeling social and parental attitudes predicted a significant amount of variance (11%) in smartphone addiction. The students’ perception of feeling social and parental attitudes functioned as a moderator on their smartphone addiction. It was revealed that the perception to be social softened the relation between authoritarian parental attitude and smartphone addiction. Furthermore, students experienced less smartphone addiction when their perception of feeling social and democratic parental attitudes were taken together. A negative and significant relation was found between democratic and authoritarian parental attitudes and smartphone addiction. A positive and significant relation was established between protective parental attitude and smartphone addiction. The results have important implication for research and practice in the context of university students.

Keywords

• smartphone addiction
• parental attitudes
• socio-demographic factors
• university students

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