Prevalence of Smartphone Addiction among Adolescents
Keywords:
Smartphone Addiction, Adolescents, Coping, Prevalence, ParentsAbstract
The aim of the study was to check out the prevalence of smartphone addiction among adolescents in Sargodha and to explore the prevalence of smartphone addiction among adolescents across demographics. It was an epidemiological study. The study involved large-scale data from educational institutions in Sargodha along demographic differences. Data was collected from different colleges and universities in Sargodha. The data was collected from 1000 participants, which was collected through purposive sampling technique. The present research was based on epidemiology using descriptive techniques to explore the information regarding the prevalence of smartphone addiction in Sargodha. The present study was carried out in 2017 to 2018 in the months of October 2017 to October 2018. The results indicated that out of the 1000 participants, only 119, 12%, were reported without smartphone addiction and 881, 88%, were reported with smartphone addiction. The frequency of smartphone addiction in boys calculated in the present study was 93.6%, and the frequency of smartphone addiction in girls was 85.0% in Sargodha. Boys were found to have more smartphone addiction as compared to girls. Similarly, adolescents belonging to the nuclear family system have a higher degree of smartphone addiction as compared to adolescents belonging to the extended family system. It was the first epidemiological investigation of the prevalence of smartphone addiction in Sargodha that explored factual information for researchers, educational institutions, and families.
References
American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5 Task Force. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5™ (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Babadi-Akashe, Z., Zamani, B. E., Abedini, Y., Akbari, H., & Hedayati, N. (2014). The relationship between mental health and addiction to mobile phones among university students of Shahrekord, Iran. Addiction & health, 6(3-4), 93.
De-Sola, J., Talledo, H., Rubio, G., & de Fonseca, F. R. (2017). Development of a mobile phone addiction craving scale and its validation in a Spanish adult population. Frontiers in psychiatry, 8, 90. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2017.00090
Devís-Devís, J., Peiró-Velert, C., Beltrán-Carrillo, V. J., & Tomás, J. M. (2009). Screen media time usage of 12–16-year-old Spanish school adolescents: effects of personal and socioeconomic factors, season and type of day. Journal of adolescence, 32(2), 213-231.
Ejaz, W., Altay, S., & Naeem, G. (2023). Smartphone use and well-being in Pakistan: Comparing the effect of self-reported and actual smartphone use. Digital Health, 9, 20552076231186075.
Griffiths, M. (1996). Gambling on the Internet: A brief note. Journal of Gambling Studies, 12, 4-471.
Haug, S., Castro, R. P., Kwon, M., Filler, A., Kowatsch, T., & Schaub, M. P. (2015). Smartphone use and smartphone addiction among young people in Switzerland. Journal of behavioral addictions, 4(4), 299-307.
Katz, J. E., & Aakhus, M. (Eds.). (2002). Perpetual contact: Mobile communication, private talk, public performance. Cambridge University Press.
Kwon, M., Kim, D. J., Cho, H., & Yang, S. (2013). The smartphone addiction scale: development and validation of a short version for adolescents. PloS one, 8(12), e83558.
Lee, Y. S. (2006). Biological model and pharmacotherapy in internet addiction. Journal of the Korean medical association, 49(3), 209-214.
Long, J., Liu, T. Q., Liao, Y. H., Qi, C., He, H. Y., Chen, S. B., & Billieux, J. (2016). Prevalence and correlates of problematic smartphone use in a large random sample of Chinese undergraduates. BMC psychiatry, 16, 1-12.
Lopez-Fernandez, O. (2017). Short version of the smartphone addiction scale adapted to Spanish and French: towards a cross-cultural research in problematic mobile phone use. Addictive behavior, 64, 75-280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2015.11.013.
Marciano, L., Schulz, P. J., & Camerini, A. L. (2021). How smartphone use becomes problematic: Application of the ALT-SR model to study the predicting role of personality traits. Computers in human behavior, 119, 106731.
Matar Boumosleh, J., & Jaalouk, D. (2017). Depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction in university students-A cross sectional study. PloS one, 12(8), e0182239.
Porta, M. S., Greenland, S., Hernán, M., dos Santos Silva, I., & Last, J. M. (Eds.). (2014). A dictionary of epidemiology. Oxford university press.
Rimsha. (2024). Perceived Stress and Psychological Well-being among Students. Pakistan Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(1), 15–21.
Sánchez-Kuhn, A., Puga, J. L., Flores, P., & Ruiz-Ruano, A. M. (2024). From non-problematic smartphone use to smartphone addiction: Impulsivity-based profiles. Adicciones, 36(3), 287-298.
Soni, R., Upadhyay, R., & Jain, M. (2017). Prevalence of smart phone addiction, sleep quality and associated behaviour problems in adolescents. International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, 5(2), 515-519. http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20170142
Villella, C., Martinotti, G., Di Nicola, M., Cassano, M., La Torre, G., Gliubizzi, M. D., ... & Conte, G. (2011). Behavioural addictions in adolescents and young adults: results from a prevalence study. Journal of gambling studies, 27, 203-214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10899-010-9206-0
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Pakistan Journal of Mental Health
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
