Loneliness and Mobile Phone

Family functioning and mobile phone addiction in university students: Mediating effect of loneliness and moderating effect of capacity to be alone

Background

With the increasing popularity of smartphones, mobile phone addiction in university students has attracted widespread societal attention. Previous studies showed that family functioning and mobile phone addiction are related. However, the potential mechanisms involved in this relationship are unknown. This study examined the mediating effect of loneliness and the moderating effect of capacity to be alone on the relationship between family functioning and mobile phone addiction.

Methods

A total of 1,580 university students were recruited. A cross-sectional study design and online questionnaire survey were employed to measure demographic variables, family functioning, loneliness, capacity to be alone, and mobile phone addiction in university students.

Results

Family functioning is a significantly negative predictor of mobile phone addiction in university students, and loneliness has a mediating effect on the relationship between family functioning and mobile phone addiction. The capacity to be alone has moderating effects on the relationship between family functioning and loneliness and between family functioning and mobile phone addiction, and these correlation is stronger in university students with a low capacity to be alone.

Conclusion

The moderated mediation model in this study improves understanding of the correlation between family functioning and mobile phone addiction in university students. Education professionals and parents should pay particular attention to family functioning in mobile phone addiction, particularly university students with low capacity to be alone.

Psychological needs satisfaction and smartphone addiction among Chinese adolescents: The mediating roles of social anxiety and loneliness

Objectives

Although previous studies have initially noted that psychological needs satisfaction (PNS) might be a significant risk factor for technology addiction (e.g. online gaming addiction and Internet addiction), specific mechanisms involved in the association between PNS and adolescent smartphone addiction are largely unknown. Based on self-determination theory, this cross-sectional study constructed a multiple mediation model to examine whether PNS will influence adolescent smartphone addiction through the mediating roles of social anxiety and loneliness.

Methods

Eight hundred and ninety-nine Chinese adolescents answered the questionnaire including measures of PNS, social anxiety, loneliness, and smartphone addiction. SPSS 24.0 was used for common method bias test, reliability test, and correlation analysis, and Mplus 7.4 was used to examine the mediating roles of social anxiety and loneliness in the multiple mediation model.

Results

This study found that (1) PNS was negatively associated with adolescent smartphone addiction; (2) loneliness significantly mediated the association between PNS and smartphone addiction while the mediating role of social anxiety in this association was nonsignificant; and (3) social anxiety and loneliness also sequentially mediated this association.

Conclusion

This study further enriched potential mechanisms linking PNS and smartphone addiction among adolescents, which may contribute to intervention and prevention programs for adolescent smartphone addiction from the perspective of improving both PNS and negative emotions including social anxiety and loneliness.

Sensor-Based Assessment of Social Isolation and Loneliness in Older Adults: A Survey

Social isolation (SI) and loneliness are 'invisible enemies'. They affect older people's health and quality of life and have significant impact on aged care resources. While in-person screening tools for SI and loneliness exist, staff shortages and psycho-social challenges fed by stereotypes are significant barriers to their implementation in routine care. Autonomous sensor-based approaches can be used to overcome these challenges by enabling unobtrusive and privacy-preserving assessments of SI and loneliness. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of sensor-based tools to assess social isolation and loneliness through a structured critical review of the relevant literature. The aim of this survey is to identify, categorise, and synthesise studies in which sensing technologies have been used to measure activity and behavioural markers of SI and loneliness in older adults. This survey identified a number of feasibility studies using ambient sensors for measuring SI and loneliness activity markers. Time spent out of home and time spent in different parts of the home were found to show strong associations with SI and loneliness scores derived from standard instruments. This survey found a lack of long-term, in-depth studies in this area with older populations. Specifically, research gaps on the use of wearable and smart phone sensors in this population were identified, including the need for co-design that is important for effective adoption and practical implementation of sensor-based SI and loneliness assessment in older adults.

Validity test of the theory of planned behavior in college students’ withdrawal from smartphone dependence

Smartphone usage has brought great convenience to our daily life. However, the detrimental consequences of smartphone dependence also require special attention. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study designed a questionnaire to investigate college students’ withdrawal from smartphone dependence. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested. The results showed that the reliability of the questionnaire was good (α = 0.84–0.94). The principal component analysis was conducted, contribution rates of these factors were moderately high (62.06%–82.35%). The validity was verified through confirmatory factor analysis. All the model fit indices were higher than the acceptable standard, which indicated the construct validity of the TPB questionnaire is good. The results of the multi-group structural equation model revealed that the model provided excellent fit to the data in each demographic group. The results of structural equation model presented that, in most demographic groups, students’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of withdrawal from smartphone dependence positively influenced their behavioral intention. Furthermore, subjective norm was the most effective predictors in each group. However, part of the paths from intention to behavior failed to reach the significant level, and their coefficients are relatively small. This reveals the gap between college students’ withdrawal intention and their actual behavior, and there may be other factors influence the relationship between the two variables.

Multidimensional Profiles of Addictive Smartphone Use: A Latent Profile Analysis

Given that crucial psychological attributes of smartphone addiction have been studied in isolation from each other, we examined latent profiles of emotional distress (depression, stress, loneliness, and fear of missing out; i.e., FoMO); protective traits (self-control, mindfulness, grit); the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and approach system (BAS; drive, reward responsiveness, and fun seeking) in relation to addictive smartphone use. We identified three distinctive profiles, using five fit statistics: AIC, BIC, adjusted BIC, an entropy, and LRT. The self-controlled, gritty, and mindful profile (22.7%) was characterized by heightened levels of self-control, grit, and mindfulness but lower levels of emotional distress, BIS, and BAS. The emotionally distressed profile (29.8%) was distinguished by elevated levels of depression, stress, loneliness, FoMO, and BIS, but relatively lower protective traits and BAS. Lastly, the approach sensitive profile (47.5%) corresponded to the normative group characterized by relatively higher BAS but mostly average levels of emotional distress and protective traits. When both global and pairwise comparisons between profiles were performed using Wald tests, we found that the self-controlled, gritty, and mindful profile was associated with significantly lower smartphone addiction tendencies than emotionally distressed or approach sensitive profiles, while the latter two did not differ from each other. These results still held when multiple covariates (age, sex, and income) were controlled for. Using a sophisticated person-centered approach, our findings underscore multidimensional psychological profiles that have different associations with smartphone addiction.

The relationship between phubbing and the depression of primary and secondary school teachers: A moderated mediation model of rumination and job burnout

BACKGROUND

With the progress of modern technology and the widespread popularization of mobile phones, many new problems related to mobile phones have aroused people's attention. One of the new phenomena is the phubbing. However, previous studies have paid more attention to the influence of phubbing on the phubbees, few researchers have focused on the influence of phubbing on the phubbers and its influencing mechanism.

METHODS

In the present study, convenient sampling method was adopted, and 907 (432 males, 47.6%) primary and secondary school teachers were recruited from Shanxi province in China. The teachers were all assessed by a series of self-assessment scales, including Generic Scale of Phubbing, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey, Ruminative Response Scale, and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.

RESULTS

The results showed as follows: (1) After controlling for age and gender, phubbing had a significantly positive link to depression of primary and secondary school teachers. Job burnout partially mediated the relation between phubbing and depression. (3) Moderated mediation analysis further indicated that the relation between job burnout and depression were moderated by rumination. Job burnout was a stronger predictor of depression in low ruminants than in high ones.

LIMITATIONS

First, cross-sectional study design was adopted in this study, but it was difficult to infer the causal relationship between variables. Further investigation and verification should be conducted in combination with experiments and follow-up studies, so as to further reveal the mechanism of action between variables. Second, all the data in this study were from the self-report. Although the common method deviation was not obvious, there may be social desirability effect.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings imply that phubbing will not only harm the mental health of the phubbees, but also will affect the mental health of the phubbers. The phubbing enhanced the job burnout of primary and secondary school teachers and increased their risk of depression. Compared with high ruminant, job burnout has a stronger predictive effect on depression in low ruminants. Therefore, we should also pay attention to the mental health problems of phubber teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Differences in Reward Sensitivity between High and Low Problematic Smartphone Use Adolescents: An ERP Study

Background: Problematic smartphone use is highly prevalent in adolescent populations compared to other age groups (e.g., adults and young children). Previous studies suggested that higher levels of reward sensitivity were associated with problematic smartphone use. Therefore, the current study investigated the neural processing of monetary and social reward and punishment feedbacks between high and low problematic smartphone use adolescents. Methods: 46 adolescents participated in the current study and they were categorized into two groups based on their level of problematic smartphone use: those who obtained low scores on the measure of problematic smartphone use were categorized as Low Problematic Smartphone Use (LPSU), and those who obtained high scores on the measure of problematic smartphone use were categorized as High Problematic Smartphone Use (HPSU). Electrocortical activities were recorded during the processing of monetary and social reward and punishment feedback. Results: (1) LPSUs evoked larger P3 in the social punishment condition than in the monetary punishment condition. HPSUs evoked larger P3 in the social reward condition than in the monetary condition. (2) The feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes in the reward condition were significantly larger than those in the punishment condition. (3) HPSUs induced larger reward positivity in social feedback conditions than in monetary feedback conditions, while there were no significant differences between the two types of conditions in the LPSUs. Discussion: The results provide neural underpinning evidence that high sensitivity to social rewards may be related to problematic smartphone use in adolescence.

Correlation between smartphone addiction and loneliness levels in nursing students

PURPOSE

This study aimed to determine the correlation between smartphone addiction and loneliness levels in nursing students.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The study has a descriptive and cross-sectional study design and was carried out with 682 nursing students. In the study, a "Student Information Form", the "Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Form", and the "University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale" were used.

FINDINGS

The study found that nursing students had moderate scores for smartphone addiction and lonelinessand that there was a positive correlation between smartphone addiction and loneliness.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Nursing students are at risk of smartphone addiction and this may lead to negative psychosocial effects. Considering these results, interventions should be planned.

An Investigation Tool for Mounting Sustainable Practice

Smart mobile devices of the present era offer many services i.e. SMS, gaming, a camera, navigation, the Internet, television, etc., and their utilization has significantly risen during the last decades. Today, individuals are addicted to mobiles and cannot think of living without using them. Conversely, these mobiles become obsolete due to certain shortcomings and are eventually replaced with new ones and thus create e-waste, which are alarmed as threat to the society. In this work, the authors describe mobiles and e-waste in a closed loop structure for supporting green issues. The work has rooted generalized interval-valued trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (GIVTFNs) with a degree of similarity measure approach to model the rationale and to furnish decision results. The authors developed a decision support system to prevent e-waste by defining significant inadequacy liable for the larger alteration of working mobiles. The present study demonstrates the technical model under an Indian context to verify its applicability, but it can be used it under any regional or worldwide scenario.

Suicidal ideation and attempt among school going adolescents in Bhutan - a secondary analysis of a global school-based student health survey in Bhutan 2016

BACKGROUND

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death and Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) worldwide. The economic, emotional and human cost of suicidal behaviour to individuals, families, communities and society makes it a serious public health issue. We aim to determine the prevalence and factors associated with self-reported suicidal behaviour (suicidal ideation and attempt) among school going adolescents (13-17 years).

METHODS

This is a secondary analysis of a nationally representative data for Bhutan namely Global School Based Student Health Survey in 2016 which reports on various dimensions of adolescent health including suicidal behaviour. The survey employed a multistage sampling method to recruit participants aged 13-17 years (n = 5809) from 50 schools (25 each in rural and urban area). The survey used an anonymous self-administered pre-tested 84-item questionnaire. Weighted analysis was done. Adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) and adjusted Odds Ratios (aORs) have been presented with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).

RESULTS

A total of 667 (11.6%) adolescents reported considering a suicide attempt whereas 656 (11.3%) reported attempting suicide in the past 12 months. Among those reporting suicidal ideation, 388 (58.6%) reported attempting a suicide and 274 (41.4%) had ideation alone, whereas, 247 (38.9%) reported attempting a suicide without previous ideation. Female sex, food insecurity, physical attack, sexual violence, bullying, feeling of loneliness, low parental engagement, reported worry about lack of sleep, urge to use drugs/alcohol, smokeless tobacco use, drug abuse and parental smoking were the factors associated with suicidal attempt. All these factors except smokeless tobacco use and parental smoking were associated with suicidal ideation. Having helpful/close friends was found to be protective against suicide ideation.

CONCLUSION

Suicidal behaviour among school going adolescents in Bhutan is high and alarming, especially among girls. Bullying, sexual violence, feeling of loneliness and drug abuse were some of the key risk factors identified. It is important to identify these risk factors early and effectively tackle them in order to prevent suicides. It requires a multi-faceted intervention with the support of the children, community, teachers and parents.

Effects of Phubbing: Relationships With Psychodemographic Variables

The aim of this research is twofold: First, to adapt the Generic Scale of Phubbing and the Generic Scale of Being Phubbed into Turkish language and culture. Second, to investigate the relationships between phubbing, being phubbed, and various psychodemographic variables including anxiety, depression, negative self, somatization, hostility, loneliness, life satisfaction, and phone use duration. The two scales were adapted to Turkish with high psychometric properties, and the original item numbers were preserved. Analysis of the associations between variables showed that (1) phubbing was associated negatively with loneliness and positively with all other variables; (2) there was a strong relationship between phubbing and phone use duration; (3) somatization, satisfaction with life, and phone use duration predicted phubbing; (4) phubbing predicted all variables except satisfaction with life; (5) being phubbed was associated negatively with loneliness and satisfaction with life and positively with all other variables; and (6) anxiety, negative self, and hostility predicted being phubbed. This study is innovative for introducing two phubbing scales to Turkish and highlighting the psychological impact of phubbing on individuals.

The relationship between addiction to mobile phone and sense of loneliness among students of medical sciences in Kermanshah, Iran

Objective

Addiction to mobile phone is one of the negative consequences of excessive use of this device. This disorder may also be related to individuals’ loneliness and may reduce or increase the sense of loneliness. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between addiction to mobile phone and sense of loneliness among medical sciences students.

Results

In this descriptive-analytical study, 439 students entered the study by stratified random sampling. The study tool was the mobile phone addiction and SELSA’s sense of loneliness questionnaires. The average score of mobile phone addiction in boys and girls was 73.77 ± 11.48 and 74.64 ± 12.28 from 100, respectively. There was no significant difference between them. According to the rating of mobile phone addiction, 17.8% of the students were in the range of moderate dependency and 10.9% of them were in the range of extreme dependency. Also, 71.3% of the students were identified as mobile phone addicts. The average score of sense of loneliness in boys and girls was 43.22 ± 5.16 and 42.82 ± 5.30, out of 105, respectively. There was no significant difference between them. There was a significant and negative correlation between the scores of mobile phone addiction and sense of loneliness.

Identifying Behavioral Phenotypes of Loneliness and Social Isolation with Passive Sensing: Statistical Analysis, Data Mining and Machine Learning of Smartphone and Fitbit Data

Background

Feelings of loneliness are associated with poor physical and mental health. Detection of loneliness through passive sensing on personal devices can lead to the development of interventions aimed at decreasing rates of loneliness.

Objective

The aim of this study was to explore the potential of using passive sensing to infer levels of loneliness and to identify the corresponding behavioral patterns.

Methods

Data were collected from smartphones and Fitbits (Flex 2) of 160 college students over a semester. The participants completed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) loneliness questionnaire at the beginning and end of the semester. For a classification purpose, the scores were categorized into high (questionnaire score>40) and low (≤40) levels of loneliness. Daily features were extracted from both devices to capture activity and mobility, communication and phone usage, and sleep behaviors. The features were then averaged to generate semester-level features. We used 3 analytic methods: (1) statistical analysis to provide an overview of loneliness in college students, (2) data mining using the Apriori algorithm to extract behavior patterns associated with loneliness, and (3) machine learning classification to infer the level of loneliness and the change in levels of loneliness using an ensemble of gradient boosting and logistic regression algorithms with feature selection in a leave-one-student-out cross-validation manner.

Results

The average loneliness score from the presurveys and postsurveys was above 43 (presurvey SD 9.4 and postsurvey SD 10.4), and the majority of participants fell into the high loneliness category (scores above 40) with 63.8% (102/160) in the presurvey and 58.8% (94/160) in the postsurvey. Scores greater than 1 standard deviation above the mean were observed in 12.5% (20/160) of the participants in both pre- and postsurvey scores. The majority of scores, however, fell between 1 standard deviation below and above the mean (pre=66.9% [107/160] and post=73.1% [117/160]).

Our machine learning pipeline achieved an accuracy of 80.2% in detecting the binary level of loneliness and an 88.4% accuracy in detecting change in the loneliness level. The mining of associations between classifier-selected behavioral features and loneliness indicated that compared with students with low loneliness, students with high levels of loneliness were spending less time outside of campus during evening hours on weekends and spending less time in places for social events in the evening on weekdays (support=17% and confidence=92%). The analysis also indicated that more activity and less sedentary behavior, especially in the evening, was associated with a decrease in levels of loneliness from the beginning of the semester to the end of it (support=31% and confidence=92%).

Conclusions

Passive sensing has the potential for detecting loneliness in college students and identifying the associated behavioral patterns. These findings highlight intervention opportunities through mobile technology to reduce the impact of loneliness on individuals’ health and well-being.

Addiction to the Internet and mobile phones and its relationship with loneliness in Iranian adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Addiction to the Internet and mobile phones in adolescents could be related to loneliness. However, less research has been conducted on this topic in developing countries. This study aimed to examine addiction to the Internet and mobile phones and its relationship with loneliness in adolescents in Iran.

METHOD

This was a cross-sectional and analytic study that was conducted between 2015 and 2016 in Rasht, in the north of Iran. Subjects were selected through cluster sampling from female and male teens who were studying in the public and private schools. The Kimberly's Internet Addiction Test, Cell phone Overuse Scale (COS), and the University of California , Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale were used for data collection.

RESULTS

The mean age of participants was 16.2 ± 1.1 year. The mean of addiction to the Internet was 42.2 ± 18.2. Overall, 46.3% of the subjects reported some degrees of addiction to the Internet. The mean of addiction to mobile phones was 55.10 ± 19.86. The results of this study showed that 77.6% (n = 451) of the subjects were at risk for addiction to mobile phones, and 17.7% (n = 103) of them were addicted to their use. The mean of loneliness was 39.13 ± 11.46 in the adolescents. Overall, 16.9% of the subjects obtained a score higher than mean in loneliness. A statistically significant direct relationship was found between addiction to the Internet and loneliness in the adolescents (r = 0.199, p = 0.0001). The results also showed a statistically significant direct relationship between addiction to mobile phones and loneliness in the adolescents (r = 0.172, p = 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

The results of this study revealed that a high percentage of adolescents who have some degrees of addiction to the Internet and mobile phones experience loneliness, and there are relationships between these variables.

The Use of Smartphones as a Digital Security Blanket: The Influence of Phone Use and Availability on Psychological and Physiological Responses to Social Exclusion

OBJECTIVE

Mobile phones are increasingly becoming a part of the social environment, and when individuals feels excluded during a socially stressful situation, they often retreat to the comfort of their phone to ameliorate the negativity. This study tests whether smartphone presence does, in fact, alter psychological and physiological responses to social stress.

METHODS

Participants (N = 148, 84% female, mean age = 20.4) were subjected to a peer, social-exclusion stressor. Before exclusion, participants were randomized to one of the following three conditions: (1) phone-present with use encouraged, (2) phone-present with use restricted, or (3) no phone access. Saliva samples and self-report data were collected throughout the study to assess salivary alpha amylase (sAA), cortisol, and feelings of exclusion.

RESULTS

Participants in both phone-present conditions reported lower feelings of exclusion compared with individuals who had no access to their phone (F(2,143) = 5.49, p = .005). Multilevel modeling of sAA responses revealed that the individuals in the restricted-phone condition had a significantly different quadratic trajectory after the stressor compared with the phone use (υ = -0.12, z = -2.15, p = .032), and no-phone conditions (υ = -0.14, z = -2.64, p = .008). Specifically, those in the restricted-phone condition showed a decrease in sAA after exclusion, those in the no-phone condition showed a gradual increase, and phone users exhibited little change. Cortisol responses to the stressor did not vary by condition.

CONCLUSIONS

Taken together, these results suggest that the mere presence of a phone (and not necessarily phone use) can buffer against the negative experience and effects of social exclusion.

Excessive use of WeChat, social interaction and locus of control among college students in China

In China, the number of college students using mobile phone based messaging and social networking applications like WeChat is increasing rapidly. However, there has been minimal research into the addictive nature of these applications and the psychological characteristics associate with their excessive use. There is also no published scale available for assessing excessive use of WeChat and similar applications. In the current study, we collected data from 1,245 college students in China (715 females) and developed the WeChat Excessive Use Scale (WEUS). We then assessed the relationship between excessive use of WeChat and excessive use of a social networking application-Weibo, problematic use of mobile phones, external locus of control, and social interaction skills. Our 10-item scale featured three factors, namely- "mood modification," "salience" and ''conflict"- critical factors in assessing different forms of addiction. The WEUS was found to be a reliable instrument in assessing excessive use of WeChat as it showed good internal consistency and correlated with other measures of problematic use social networking and mobile phone addiction. Our results showed that excessive users of WeChat are more likely to excessively use Weibo than they are to problematically use mobile phones. Our study also showed that greater excessive use of WeChat is associated with higher external locus of control and greater online social interaction skills. These results reveal that WeChat has unique and strong appeal among college students in China. Further, practitioners should consider dealing with malleable factors like locus of control and real life social skills in treating people with problematic messaging and social networking.

Definition of Substance and Non-substance Addiction

Substance addiction (or drug addiction) is a neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by a recurring desire to continue taking the drug despite harmful consequences. Non-substance addiction (or behavioral addiction) covers pathological gambling, food addiction, internet addiction, and mobile phone addiction. Their definition is similar to drug addiction but they differ from each other in specific domains. This review aims to provide a brief overview of past and current definitions of substance and non-substance addiction, and also touches on the topic of diagnosing drug addiction and non-drug addiction, ultimately aiming to further the understanding of the key concepts needed for a foundation to study the biological and psychological underpinnings of addiction disorders.