Investigating Nomophobia as a Predictor of Smartphone Addiction among Nigerian Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

ADENEYE OLAREWAJU AWOFALA

Abstract

Nomophobia and smartphone addiction are behavioural disorders that are maladaptive and affect 21st-century digital natives anywhere, everywhere. This study investigated nomophobia as a predictor of smartphone addiction among Nigerian pre-service mathematics teachers within the framework of quantitative methodology of non-experimental correlational research design. The participants consisted of 300 pre-service mathematics teachers randomly selected from the Department of Science and Technology Education, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Four research questions were answered in the study using the statistical tools of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that majority of the pre-service mathematics suffered from nomophobia and smartphone addiction. There was a positive relationship between smartphone addiction and nomophobia and nomophobia was a significant predictor of smartphone addiction among pre-service mathematics teachers. Based on these findings it was concluded that universities and parents in Nigeria should find a way of reducing the prevalence of nomophobia and smartphone addiction in pre-service mathematics teachers in the country.

Keywords

Nomophobia, Smartphone addiction, Pre-service Mathematics Teachers

Full Text:

PDF

References

Adnan, M., & Gezgin, D. M. (2016). Modern yüzyilin yeni olgusu nomofobi ve üniversite ögrencileri arasinda yayginlik düzeyi. Ankara Üniversitesi Egitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Dergisi, 49(1), 141-158.

Ak, N.Y., & Yildirim, S. (2018). Nomophobia among undergraduate students: The case of a Turkish State University. International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications, 9(4), 11-20.

Akkoyunlu, B. (2018). Why we should start implementing mobile learning in education? In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Distance Learning and Innovative Educational Technologies, 12-13 December 2018, Kizilcahamam, Ankara, Turkey.

Alavi, S.S., Maracy, M.R., Jannatifard, F., Ojaghi, R., & Rezapour, H. (2014). The psychometric properties of cellular phone dependency questionnaire in students of Isfahan: A pilot study. International Journal of Health Promotion and Education, 3(71).

AlBarashdi, H. S., Bouazza, A., Jabur, N. H. & Al-Zubaidi, A. S. (2016). Smartphone addiction reasons and solutions from the perspective of Sultan Qaboos university undergraduates: A qualitative study. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioural Analysis, 2, 113. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15344/2455-3867/2016/113

Argumosa-Villar, L., Boada-Grau, J. & Vigil-Colet, A. (2017). Exploratory investigation of theoretical predictors of nomophobia using the Mobile Phone Involvement Questionnaire (MPIQ). Journal of Adolescence, 56, 127–135.

Bian, M., & Leung, L. (2015). Linking loneliness, shyness, smartphone addiction symptoms, and patterns of smartphone use to social capital. Social Science Computer Review, 33(1), 61-79.

Bragazzi, N. L., & Del Puente, G. (2014). A proposal for including nomophobia in the new DSM-V. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 16(7), 155-160.

Broughton, G. (2015). The changing face [book] of friendship, fellowship and formation. St Mark's Review, (233), 74.

Buctot, D. B., Kim, N. & Kim, J. J. (2020). Factors associated with smartphone addiction prevalence and its predictive capacity for health-related quality of life among Filipino adolescents. Children and Youth Services Review, 110, 104758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104758

Crompton, H., Olszewski, B., & Bielefeldt, T. (2016). The mobile learning training needs of educators in technology-enabled environments. Professional Development in Education, 42(3), 482–501.

Dixit S., Shukla H., Bhagwat A., Bindal A., Goyal A., Zaidi A. K., & Shrivastava, A. (2010). A study to evaluate mobile phone dependence among students of a medical college and associated hospital of central India. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 35(2), 339–341.

Dongre, A. S., Inamdar, I. F. & Gattani, P. L. (2017). Nomophobia: A study to evaluate mobile phone dependence and impact of cell phone on health. National Journal of Community Medicine, 8, 688–693.

Duke, É. & Montag, C. (2017). Smartphone addiction: Daily interruptions and self-reported productivity. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 6, 90–95.

Gezgin, D. M. (2019). Teknoloji bagimliligi ve nomofobi. Retrieved 12 January 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331889824_Teknoloji_Bagimliligi_ve_Nomofobi.

Gezgin, D. M. Sumuer, E. Arslan, O. & Yildirim, S. (2017). Nomophobia prevalence among pre-service teachers: A case of Trakya University. Trakya Üniversitesi Egitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 7(1), 86-95.

Gezgin, D.M., Hamutoglu, N.B., Samur, Y., & Yildirim, S. (2018). Genç nesil arasinda yayginlasan bir bagimlilik: Akilli telefon bagimliliginin cinsiyet, akademik basari ve mobil oyun oynama degiskenleri açisindan incelenmesi [A spreading addiction among young generation: An examination of smartphone addiction according to gender, academic success and mobile game playing variables]. Educational Technology Theory and Practice, 8(2), 212-231.

Kaplan Akilli, G., & Gezgin, D.M. (2016). Üniversite ögrencilerinin nomofobi düzeyleri ile farkli davranis örüntülerinin arasindaki iliskilerin incelenmesi [Examination of relationship between university students' nomophobia levels and behaviour patterns]. Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Egitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 40, 5169.

Kaur, A. & Sharma, P. (2015). A descriptive study to assess the risk of developing nomophobia among students of selected nursing colleges Ludhiana, Punjab. International Journal of Psychiatric Nursing, 1(2), 1-6.

King, A. L., 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), 5254.

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.

LaRose, R., Lin, C. A. & Eastin, M. S. (2003). Unregulated internet usage: Addiction, habit, or deficient self-regulation? Media Psychology, 5, 225–253.

Liang, J. & Leung, L. (2018). Comparing smartphone addiction: The prevalence, predictors, and negative consequences in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The Journal of Social Media, 7(2), 297-322.

Mail Online (2008). Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact – And it’s the plague of our 24/7 age. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article550610/Nomophobia-fear-mobile-phone-contact–plague-24-7-age.html Retrieved 15.05.14.

Oulasvirta, A. Rattenbury, T. Ma, L. & Raita, E. (2012). Habits make smartphone use more pervasive. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 16, 105–114.

Park, N., & Lee, H. (2012). Social implications of smartphone use: Korean college students’ smartphone use and psychological well-being. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(9), 491–497.

Pavithra, M., Madhukumar, S. & Mahadeva, M. (2015). A study on nomophobia-mobile phone dependence, among students of a medical college in Bangalore. National Journal of Community Medicine, 6(3), 340–344.

SecurEnvoy (2012). 66% of the population suffer from nomophobia the fear of being without their phone.http://www.securenvoy.com/blog/2012/02/16/66-of-thepopulation-suffer-from nomophobia-the-fear-of-being-without-their-phone/.

Semerci, A. (2019). Nomophobia as the predictor of secondary school students’ smartphone addiction. Bartin University Journal of Faculty of Education, 8(3), 947-965

Sohn, S., Rees, P., Wildridge, B., Kalk, N. J. & Carter, B. (2019). Prevalence of problematic smartphone usage and associated mental health outcomes amongst children and young people: a systematic review, meta-analysis and GRADE of the evidence. BMC Psychiatry, 19, 1-10.

Spitzer, M. (2015). M-Learning? When it comes to learning, smartphones are a liability, not an asset. Trends in Neuroscience & Education, 4, 87–89.

Veerapu, N., Philip, R. K. B., Vasireddy, H., Gurrala, 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.

Wang, L., Tao, T., Fan, C., Gao, W., & Wei, C. (2017). The association between Internet addiction and both impulsivity and effortful control and its variation with age. Addiction Research & Theory, 25(1), 83-90.

Yildirim, C. & Correia A-P. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130–137.

Yildiz Durak, H. (2017). Investigation of nomophobia and smartphone addiction predictors among adolescents in Turkey: Demographic variables and academic performance. The Social Science Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2018.09.003.

Yildiz Durak, H.Y. (2018). What would you do without your smartphone? Adolescents’ social media usage, locus of control, and loneliness as a predictor of nomophobia. ADDICTA: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 5(2), 1-15.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20961/ijie.v4i2.40021