The Relationship between Nomophobia and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Levels of University Students

Abstract

In today's world, smartphones are an indispensable part of people's daily lives because smartphones facilitate daily routines. However, problematic or excessive use of smartphones can cause some psychological problems. Nomophobia is considered as one of the psychological problems caused by excessive use of smartphones. Nomophobia is referred to as modern age phobia and refers to irrational fears and anxieties of a person who cannot access or communicate with their mobile phone. Therefore, this study examines the prevalence of nomophobia among college students, behavioral patterns associated with nomophobia, and reveals the relationship between nomophobia and depression-anxiety-stress. A personal questionnaire, the Depression Anxiety Stress (DASS-42) and Nomophobia (NMP-Q) scales were used to investigate the research questions. . Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent samples t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and simple linear regression methods were used to analyze the data. The results show that the level of nomophobia among college students is higher than average. There were significant differences between the level of nomophobia and the college students' behaviors such as carrying a charger, checking the smartphone after waking up, checking the phone frequently during the day, the duration of daily smartphone use, and the time of internet use through the smartphone. A positive correlation was found between nomophobia and depression-anxiety-stress level. Finally, in the regression analysis, the model was found to be statistically significant. This result shows that the level of nomophobia is a significant predictor of the level of depressionand anxiety stress. The results obtained show that nomophobia has negative impact on mental health.

Keywords

• Smartphone
• nomophobia
• depression
• anxiety
• stress

Kaynakça

1. Adnan, M., & Gezgin, D. M. (2016). A modern phobia: Prevalence of nomophobia among college students. Ankara University Journal of Faculty Educational Sciences, 49(1), 141-158. https://doi.org/10.1501/Egifak_0000001378.
2. Akıllı, K. G., & Gezgin, D. M. (2016). Üniversite öğrencilerinin nomofobi düzeyleri ile farklı davranış örüntülerinin arasındaki ilişkilerin incelenmesi. Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Fakültesi Dergisi, 40, 51-69. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/264207
3. Akın, A., & Çetin, B. (2007). Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS): The study of validity and reliability. Educational Science: Theory & Practice, 7(1), 241-268.
4. Al-Shaikh, A. A., Almusa, H. M., Al-Saleem, S.A., Al-Qahtani, F. S., Riaz, F., Bhati, R. K., Al-Amri, S., Assiri, A. S., Al-Shaikh, S. A., As-Siri, A. A., Al-Arafi, A. A, Al-Arafi, S. H. M., & Mostafa, O, et.al. (2019). Prevalence and determinants of “no-mobile” phobia (nomophobia) among university students. Medical Journal of Cairo University, 87, 2581-2586. https://mjcu.journals.ekb.eg/article_54873.html.
5. Andone, I., Blaszkiewicz, K., Eibes, M., Trendafilov, B., Montag, C., & Markovetz, A. (2016). How age and gender affect smartphone usage. In Proceedings of theACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and UbiquitousComputing: Adjunct, Germany: Heidelberg, 9-12. https://doi.org/10.1145/2968219.2971451
6. Augner, C., & Hacker, G. W. (2012). Associations between problematic mobile phone use and psychological parameters in young adults. International Journal of Public Health, 57(2), 437-441. doi:10.1007/s00038-011-0234-z.
7. Bianchi, A., & Phillips, J. G. (2005). Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 8(1), 39-51. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15738692/
8. Bragazzi, N. L., & Puente, G. D. (2014.) A proposal for including nomophobia in the new DSM-V. Dove Press J: Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 7, 155-160. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4036142/doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S41386.

9. Büyükçolpan, H. (2019). Üniversite öğrencilerinde nomofobi, bağlanma biçimleri, depresyon ve algılanan sosyal destek [Yüksek lisans tezi]. Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara. Erişim adresi: http://openaccess.hacettepe.edu.tr:8080/xmlui/handle/11655/5955
10. Büyüköztürk, Ş., Kılıç-Çakmak, E., Akgün, Ö.E., Karadeniz, Ş. & Demirel, F. (2018). Eğitimde bilimsel araştırma yöntemleri. Pegem.
11. Chen, B., Liu, F., Ding, S., Ying, X., Wang, L., & Wen, Y. (2017). Gender differences in factors associated with smartphone addiction: A cross-sectional study among medical college students. BMC Psychiatry, 17(1), 1-9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29017482/#:~:text=Results%3A%20The%20prevalence%20of%20smartphone,anxiety%2C%20and%20poor%20sleep%20quality
12. Clayton, R. B., Leshner, G., & Almond, A. (2015.) The extended iself: The impact of iphone seperation on cognition, emotion, and physiology. Journal of Computer-Mediataed Communication, 20(2), 119-135. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12109
13. DailyMail (2008). Nomophobia is the fear of being out mobile contact–and it’s the plague of our 24/7 age. Erişim adresi: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-550610/Nomophobia-fear-mobile-phone-contact--plague-24-7-age.html.
14. Darvishi, M., Noori, M., Nazer, M. R., Sheikholeslami, S., & Karimi, E. (2019). Investigating different dimensions of nomophobia among medical students: A cross-sectional study. Mecadonian Journal of Medical Sciences, 7(4), 573-578. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6420939/
15. Dawes, J. G. (2008). Do data characteristics change according to the number of scale points used? An experiment using 5 point, 7 point and 10 point scales. İnternational Journal of Market Research, 50(1), 61-77. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.417.9488verep=rep1vetype=pdf
16. Dixit, S., Shukla, H., Bhagvat, A. K., Bindal, A., Goyal, A., Zaidi, AK., & Shrivastava, A, et al. (2009). A study to evaluate mobile phone dependence among students at a medical college and associated hospital of central India. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 35(2), 339-341. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2940198/
17. Erdem, H., Türen, U., & Kalkın, G. (2016). Mobil telefon yoksunluğu korkusu (nomofobi) yayılımı: Türkiye’den üniversite öğrencileri ve kamu çalışanları örneklemi. Bilişim Teknolojileri Dergisi, 10(1), 1-12.
18. Gezgin, D. M. (2017). Exploring the influence of the patterns of mobile internet use on university students’ nomophobia levels. European Journal of Education Studies, 3(6), 29-53.
19. Gezgin, D. M., Şumuer, E., Arslan, O., & Yildirim, S. (2017). Nomophobia prevalence among pre-service teachers: A case of Trakya university. Trakya Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 7(1), 86-95. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/270323
20. Gezgin, D., Şahin, Y. L., & Yıldırım, S. (2017). Sosyal ağ kullanıcıları arasında nomofobi yaygınlığının çeşitli faktörler açısından incelenmesi. Eğitim Teknolojisi Kuram ve Uygulama, 7(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.17943/etku.288485
21. Güler, E.Ö., & Veysikarani, D. (2019). Nomofobi üzerine bir araştırma: Üniversite öğrencileri örneği. Beykoz Akademi Dergisi, 7(1), 75-88. https://doi.org/10.14514/BYK.m.26515393.2019.7/1.75-88
22. Güllüce, A. Ç., Kaygın, E., & Börekçi, N. E. (2019). Üniversite öğrencilerinin nomofobi düzeyi ile öznel iyi olma durumları arasındaki ilişkinin belirlenmesi Ardahan örneği. Hacettepe Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 37(4), 651-674. https://doi.org/10.17065/huniibf.482061
23. Güzel, Ş. (2019). Fear of the age: nomophobia (no-mobile-phone). Journal of Academic Perspective on Social Studies, (1), 20-24. https://doi.org/10.35344/japss.519609
24. Hakoama, M., & Hakoyama, S. (2011). The impact of cell phone use on social networking and development among college students. The AmericanAssociation of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal, 15, 1-20.
25. Hoşgör, H. (2020). Üniversite öğrencilerinin nomofobi düzeyini etkileyen faktörler ve ders performansları üzerinde nomofobinin etkisi. Uluslararası Toplum Araştırmaları Dergisi, 15(25), 144:175. https://doi.org/10.26466/opus.650312
26. Internatioal Telecommunication Union (ITU) 2015. Erişim adresi: http://www.itu.int/en/ITUD/Statistics/Documents/statistics/2015/ITU_Key_2005-2015_ICT_data.xls .
27. Jena, R. K. (2015). Compulsive use of smartphone and its effect on engaged learning and nomophobia. Smart Journal of Business Management Studies, 11, 42-51.
28. Kalaskar, P. B. (2015). A study of awareness of development of NoMoPhobia condition in smartphone user management students in Pune city. ASM’s İnternational E-Journal on Ongoing Research in Management and IT, 320-326.
29. Kang, S., & Jung, J. (2014.) Mobile communication for human needs: a comparison of smartphone uses between the US and Korea. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 376-387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.024.
30. Kanmani, A., & Bhavani, U., ve Maragatham, R. S. (2017). Nomophobia-an insight into its psychological aspects in India. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(2), 5-15.
31. Katep, S. A. (2017). The prevalence ad psychological symptoms of nomophobia among university students. JRCIET, Journal Research in Curriculumi Instruction and Educational Technology, 3(3), 155-182. http://search.shamaa.org/PDF/Articles/EGJrciet/JrcietVol3No3Y2017/jrciet_2017-v3-n3_155-182_eng.pdf.
32. Kim, E. Y., Cho, I., & Kim, E. J. (2017). Structural equation model of smartphone addiction based on adult attachment theory: Mediating effects of loneliness and depression. Asian Nursing Research, 11(2), 92–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2017.05.002.
33. King, A. L. S., Valença, A. M., & Nardi, A. E. (2010). Nomophobia: the mobile phone in panic disorder with agoraphobia: reducing phobias or worsening of dependence. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 23(1), 52-54.
34. King, A. L. S., Valenca, A. M., Silva, A. C. O., Baczynski, T., Carvalho, M. R., & Nardi, A. E. (2013). Nomaphobia: Dependency on virtual environments or social phobia? Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 140-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.025.
35. Lee, S., Kim, M. W., McDonough, I. M., Mendoza, J. S., & Kim, M. S. (2017). The effects of cell phone use and emotion-regulation style on college students’ learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 31(3), 360-366. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3323
36. Lin, C. Y., Griffiths, M. D., & Pakpour, A. H. (2018). Psychometric evaluation of Persian nomophobia questionare: Differential item functioning and measurement invariance across gender. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(1), 100-108.
37. Mallya, N. V., Kumar, S., & Mashal, S. (2018). A study to evaluate the behavioral dimensons of “nomophobia” and attitude toward smartphone usage among medical students in Bengaluru. National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 8(11), 1553-1557. http://www.njppp.com/fulltext/28-1535516590.pdf..
38. Newport, F. (2015). Most U.S. smartphone owners check phone at least hourly, Erişim adresi: http://www.gallup.com/poll/184046/smartphone-owners-check-phone-least-hourly.aspx
39. Öztürk, M. C. (2015.) Bağlantıda kalmak ya da kalmamak işte tüm korku bu: internetsiz kalma korkusu ve örgütsel yansımaları. Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi, 8(37), 629-638. https://www.guvenliweb.org.tr/dosya/o7KWy.pdf
40. Pavithra, M. B., Madhukumar, S., & Murthy, M. (2015). A study on nomophobia-mobile phone dependence, among students at a medical college in Banglore. National Journal of Community Medicine, 6(3), 340-344. http://njcmindia.org/uploads/6-3_340-344.pdf
41. Prasad, M., Patthi, B., Singla, A., Gupta, R., Saha, S., Kumar, J. K., Malhi, R., & Pandita, V, et al. (2017). Nomophobia: a cross-sectional study to assess mobile phone usage among dental students. Journal of Clinical ve Diagnostic Research, 11(2), ZC34-ZC39.
42. Randler, C., Wolfgang, L., Matt, K., Demirhan, E., Horzum, B. H., & Beşoluk, Ş. (2016) Smartphone addiction proneness in relation to sleep and morningness-eveningness in german adolescents. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 5(3), 465-473.
43. Rosales-Huamani, J. A., Guzman-Lopez, R. R., Aroni-Vilca, E. E., Matos-Avalos, C. R., & Castillo-Sequera, J. L. (2019). Determining symptomatic factors of nomophobia in Peruvian from the national university of engineering. Applied Sciences, 9, 1-17.
44. SecureEnvoy (2016). %66 of the population suffers from nomophobia the fear of being without their phone. Erişim adresi: https://www.securenvoy.com/blog/2012/02/16/66-of-the-population-suffer-fromnomophobia-the-fear-of-being-without-their-phone/.
45. Sharma, N., Sharma, P., Sharma, N., & Wavare, R. R. (2015). Rising concern of nomophobia amongst Indian medical students. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 3(3), 705-707.
46. Tams, S., Legoux, R., & Leger, P. M. (2018). Smartphone withdrawal creates stress: A moderated mediation model of nomophobia, social threat, and phone withdrawal context. Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.11.026
47. Tavolacci, M. P., Meyrignac, G., Richard, L., Dechelotte, P., & Ladner, J. (2015). Problematic use of mobile phone and nomophobia among French college students. European Journal of Public Health, 25(3), 172-188. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckv172.088.
48. Türkiye İstatistik Kurumu (2019). Hanehalkı bilişim teknolojileri araştırması. Erişim adresi: http://www.tuik.gov.tr/VeriBilgi.do?alt_id=1028.
49. Veerapu, N., Philip, R. K. B., Vasireddy, H., Guralla, S., & Kanna, S. T. (2019). A study on nomophobia and its correlation with sleeping difficulty and anxiety among medical students in a medical college, Telangana. International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 6(5), 2074-2076. dhttp://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20191821
50. Yildirim, Ç., & Correia, A. P. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: development and validation of self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130-137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.059.
51. Yildirim, Ç., Sumuer, E., Adnan, M., & Yildirim, S. (2015). A growing fear: prevalence of nomophobia among Turkish college students. Information Development 32(5), 1322-1331. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266666915599025