Nomophobia and Psychological Distress Among University Students
Keywords:
Nomo Phobia, Psychological Distress, Depression, Stress, Anxiety Cross-Sectional.Abstract
This study was aimed to explore the relationship between nomophobia and psychological distress among university students. Cross-sectional design was used in the study. Random sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 350 students from university aged 18-26 years. Measures of the study included The Nomophobia Scale (Yildirim & Correia, 2015) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Results revealed that there is a significant positive correlation between nomophobia and psychological distress (0.44**), Moreover, regression analysis showed that nomophobia significantly predicted psychological distress. Further, significant mean differences were found in the mean scores of nomophobia and psychological distress across gender. Male students had mean score of M=93.46 as compared to the female students M=85.91 in nomophobia and similarly, higher mean scores of male students M=28.56 as compared to the mean score of female students (M=25.14) in psychological distress. These outcomes highlight the need for promotion of healthy use of smartphones and integrate both digital well-being and mental health interventions programs to decrease psychological distress among students.
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