Department of Special Care Nursing

A STUDY ON SMARTPHONE
ADDICTION AMONG SECONDARY
SCHOOL STUDENTS IN KUANTAN,
PAHANG
By:
Sr. Rosnani Binti Sarkarsi
Department of Special Care Nursing
Kulliyyah of Nursing, IIUM
 Department of Special Care Nursing

INTRODUCTION

• Mobile phone addiction is a form of cyber disorder, cyber addiction, or

technological addiction which is characterized in the repetitive use of the
mobile phone to engage in behavior that is known to be counterproductive
to health. (Lopez-Fernandez, Honrubia- Serrano,
Freixa-Blanxart & Gibson, 2013)

• Paper concludes that the percentage of mobile addiction is more than 75%
among students.
(Bhise, Ghatule & Ghatule, 2014)

• Mobile phone usage possibly the biggest non-drug addiction of the 21st
century. 2
(Shambare, Rugimbana, & Zhowa, 2011)
 Department of Special Care Nursing

PROBLEM STATEMENT
• The study conducted in Korea have proven the relationship of smartphone
addiction to mental health, campus life, personal relations, self- control and
life stress
(Kwon , Kim, Cho & Yang, 2013)

• There is no clear evidence regarding the smartphone addiction among

secondary school student in Malaysia.

• Thus, this study is conducted to identify the prevalence of smartphone

addiction among the secondary school students in Malaysia setting which is
in Kuantan, Pahang.

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
STUDENTS

• Smartphone addiction can lead to mental health, campus life, personal

relations, self- control and life stress.

• The Smartphone Addiction Scale can be used efficiently for the screening
of smartphone addiction in communities or schools.
(Kwon , Kim, Cho & Yang,2013)

NURSING

• The smartphone addiction among the teenagers is on the rise, it is

necessary to continue to study the conditions that enhance this
phenomenon, to develop prevention and treatment programs.
(Choliz, 2012)

• Nurses who directly involve in school health programs must ensure to

notify the prevalence of smartphone addiction among the students in
order to prevent various problems that may contribute to health 4
disturbance among students.
 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESEARCH QUESTION RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1. What is the prevalence of smartphone 1. To identify the prevalence of

addiction among the secondary school smartphone addiction among the
students in Kuantan? secondary school students in Kuantan.

2. How much time the secondary school 2. To determine the number of hours
students spent in using the spent daily by secondary school
smartphone per day? students on smartphone

3. Is there any association between 3. To determine the association between

purpose of smartphone use and the smartphone usage and
smartphone addiction? smartphone addiction.
4. To determine the relationship
4. Is there any relationship between between socio-demographic data and
socio-demographic data and smartphone addiction.
smartphone addiction? 5
LITERATURE REVIEW
Prevalence of smartphone
addiction among
adolescent
• Population that are more
vulnerable to abusing or
dependence on the
smartphone consists of young
generation.
• Students are among the heavy
users of mobile technologies
and they tend to rely heavily
on their phones.
• 26% of smartphone users
cannot live without their
smartphone and the symptoms
of smartphone addiction had
25.7% of students .
(Hakoama &Hakoyama, 2011;
Shambare, Rugimbana & Zhowa,
2011 ; Szpakow, Stryzhak &
Prokopowicz, 2011)
Socio-demographic data
and smartphone addiction
Gender
• Female had a higher
dependency on smartphones
compared to males.
Time spent on smartphone
• 68% of the respondents use 2
to 3 hours per day on the
smartphone usage.
• University students use this
communication devices more
on weekends than on
weekdays.
(Kumar & Franklin, 2014; Devis-
Devis, Peiro-Velert, Beltran-Carrilo
& Tomas, 2009 ; Choliz, 2012)
Department of Special Care Nursing
Purpose of smartphone
use among adolescent
• Students use smartphone for
communicating with others
face-to-face or instantly,
enjoying different kinds of
entertainment like games, and
getting information while
surfing on Internet.
• Students remain busy in
sending missed calls and
messages, listening to music
and watching movies through
their smartphone.
• Students used smartphones for
sending text messages, making
photos and access to the
Internet .
(Bouazza, Barashdi, Abdull & Al,
6
2015 ; Phil, Malik & Gujjar, 2011 ;
Krajewska et al., 2012)
 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Type of study • Cross-sectional study design

• Location (Kuantan, Pahang)

• SMK Bukit Rangin
Study setting • SMK Bukit Goh
• SMK Sungai Lembing

Study • 112 489 students in all

Population secondary schools in Kuantan

• 326 secondary school

Sample Size students

Sampling • Convenience sampling 7

Method
 Department of Special Care Nursing

INCLUSION & EXCLUSION

CRITERIA
INCLUSION EXCLUSION

• Secondary school students of Form 1, • Secondary school students who will be

2, and 4 with the age of 13, 14, and 16 taking major examination such as
years old. Penilaian Tingkatan 3 (PT3), and Sijil
Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM).
• Students who are having the
smartphone. • Disabled student (deafness, blindness,
mute)
• Students who are able to understand
and read Bahasa Malaysia or English
language.

• Students who are able to get consent

from the participant and their
parent/guardian to be part of research
sample.

• All the races included. 8

 Department of Special Care Nursing

INSTRUMENT
• Closed-ended questionnaire
• Two parts:
 Part A : Socio-demographic data, time spent in using smartphone,
purposes of smartphone usage
 Part B : Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV)
• Reliability and validity:
 Previous study :
• Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-SV)
• Cronbach’s Alpha : 0.91

(Kwon , Kim, Cho & Yang ,2013) 9

 Department of Special Care Nursing

ETHICAL CONSIDERATION

KON Research IIUM Research Ministry of

Committee Ethics Committee Education (MoE)
(KNRC) (IREC)

Consent from Kuantan District Pahang State

School Principal Education Office Education
Department

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

DATA COLLECTION
The researcher
will meet the The respondents
Started from TBD school will be then
until TBD administration to identified and
get the approached
permission

The students will be given Explain about the

Obtain written
20-30 minutes to purpose of the
consent.
complete questionnaire research.

Students who lack of Data will be kept 11

understanding will and remain
be assisted by the
researcher confidential.
 Department of Special Care Nursing

DATA ANALYSIS
Research objective Data analysis

Level of Internet addiction among Descriptive: Percentage, Frequency.

respondents.

Number of hour daily spent by the Descriptive: Percentage, Frequency.

students in using the smartphone.

Association between socio- Chi Square

demographic factor and
smartphone addiction.
Association between purposes of Chi Square
smartphone use and smartphone
addiction.
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 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESULT
• Level of Internet addiction among respondents.

Frequency of smartphone addiction by categories (N=326)

Frequency Percentage
Variable
(n) (%)
Level of
smartphone
addiction

Not addicted 28 8.6

Mild addicted 114 35.0
Moderate addicted 143 43.9
13
Severe addicted 41 12.6
 Department of Special Care Nursing

• The level of smartphone addiction was classified into four categories which
are not addicted, mild addicted, moderate addicted and severe addicted
according to the score of Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (Kwon
et al., 2013).

• Among 326 of secondary school students who were participating in this

study, only 28 (8.6%) of students were found not addicted to the
smartphone use.

• Majority of the respondents with the total number of 298 were found
addicted to the use of smartphone (91.4%).

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESULT
• Number of hour daily spent by the students in using the smartphone.

120

30.1%
100 28.8%

25.2%
80

60
16.0%

40

20

0
Less than 30 minutes 1 hour 2-3 hours More than 3 hours
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 Department of Special Care Nursing

• Number of hour daily spent by the students in using the smartphone.

• From 326 of the respondents, 52 of them (16%) were recorded utilizing the
smartphone less than 30 minutes.

• Meanwhile, there are 82 respondents (25.2%) using smartphone for an hour

per day, 98 respondents (30.1%) used for 2-3 hours per day while the
remaining 94 respondents (28.8%) were using the smartphone more than 3
hours per day.

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESULT
• Association between socio-demographic factor and
smartphone addiction. (N=326)
Moderate Severe
Not addicted Mild addicted
Variable addicted addicted χ2 p-value
n (%) n (%)
n (%) n (%)
Socio-
demographic
factor
Level of study 7.236α 0.065

Lower form 23(11.1) 75(36.1) 89(42.8) 21(10.1)

Upper form 5(4.2) 39(33.1) 54(45.8) 20(16.9)

Gender 22.092α p < 0.001

Male 17(13.1) 58(44.6) 48(36.9) 7(5.4)
Female 11(5.6) 56(28.6) 95(48.5) 34(17.3)
Race 7.736α 0.164
17
Malay 28(9.5) 100(33.8) 129(43.6) 39(13.2)

Non- Malay 0(0.0) 14(46.7) 14(46.7) 2(6.7)

 Department of Special Care Nursing

• Based on the data analysis by using the Chi Square test, the result showed
that there was significant association between gender and smartphone
addiction, X2 (3, N = 326) = 22.092, p< 0.001

• However, demographic factor of level of study among respondents showed

no significant association with the smartphone addiction, X2 (3, N = 326) =
7.236, p = 0.065.

• Similarly, there is no significant association between race and smartphone

addiction, X2 (3, N = 326) = 7.736, p =0.164.

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

Purpose of using the smartphone.

1.2%
14.4%

Messenger & SNS

Entertainment

55.8%
28.5% Internet surfing

Others

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 Department of Special Care Nursing

RESULT
• Association between purposes of smartphone use and
smartphone addiction.
Table : Purpose of using smartphone and smartphone addiction (N=326)
Moderate Severe
Not addicted Mild addicted
Variable addicted addicted χ2 p-value
n (%) n (%)
n (%) n (%)

Purpose of
37.410α p < 0.001
smartphone use

Messenger &
Social
5(2.7) 56(30.8) 87(47.8) 34(18.7)
Networking
Services

Entertainment 16(17.2) 36(38.7) 36(38.7) 5(5.4)

Internet
7(14.9) 19(40.4) 19(40.4) 2(4.3)
surfing 20
Others 0(0.0) 3(75.0) 1(25.0) 0(0.0)

α= Likelihood ratio
 Department of Special Care Nursing

CONCLUSION
• The majority of the respondents were found addicted to use of smartphone.
There are significant association between smartphone addiction and gender.
• The purpose of using smartphone also shown significant association with the
smartphone addiction.

• Implication for nursing practice and research

Prevention is always better than cure.

Thus, in this issue of smartphone addiction, complete health assessment among

the students including mental health status should be done gradually and
thoroughly for early detection occurrence of this problem.

This can be done through the implementation of the School Health program
that had been introduced by the Ministry of Health (MoH) Malaysia.

This study had provided a preliminary data about the prevalence and level of
smartphone addiction among secondary school students in Kuantan area. It is
recommended for the other researcher to replicate this study to identify the 21
factors that may lead to the addiction.
 Department of Special Care Nursing

CONCLUSION
• It is recommended for the other researcher to replicate this
study to identify the factors that may lead to the addiction.

• Furthermore, studying the relationship between the

smartphone addictions with other possible factors such as
academic performance could also be done in the future.

• Moreover, the study also recommended to be conducted on

different target group such as among the workers who used
their smartphone at workplace to identify the productivity
and quality of their work and the negative effect from the
smartphone use. 22
 Department of Special Care Nursing

REFERENCES
Bhise, A. T., Ghatule, A. A., & Ghatule, A. P. (2014). Study of Mobile Addiction among Students w . r . t .
Gender and Education, 2(1), 17–21.

Bouazza, A., Barashdi, H. A., Abdull, P., & Al, Q. (2015). Development and Validation of a Smartphone Addiction
Questionnaire ( SPAQ ), 2, 58–68.

Choliz, M. (2012). Mobile-Phone Addiction in Adolescence: The Test of Mobile Phone Dependence (TMD).
Progress in Health Sciences, 2(1), 33–44.

Devis-Devis, J., Peiro-Velert, C., Beltran-Carrillo, V. J., & Tomas, 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. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.04.004

Hakoama, M., & Hakoyama, S. (2011). The impact of cell phone use on social networking and development
among college students. The American Association of Behavioral and Social Sciences Journal,
15(1), 1–20.

Kumar, I. M., & Franklin, E. E. (2014). College Student ’ s Mobile Phone Usage …. Exploring and Exploiting
The Technology …. Social Science, (2277), 3–5.

Krajewska-Kułak ,E., Kułak, W., Stryzhak, A., Szpakow, A., Prokopowicz, W., Marcinkowski , J.T. (2012).
Problematic mobile phone using among the Polish and Belarusian University students, a
comparative study. Prog Health Science, 2(1), 45–50.
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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.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083558

Lopez-Fernandez, O., Honrubia-Serrano, L., Freixa-Blanxart, M., & Gibson, W. (2014). Prevalence
of problematic mobile phone use in british adolescents. Cyberpsychology,
Behavior and Social Networking, 17(2), 91–8. doi:10.1089/cyber.2012.0260

Phil, M. J. M., Malik, M. A., & Gujjar, A. A. (2011). Mobile Phone Culture and its Psychological
Impacts on Students’ Learning at the University Level. Language in India,
11(February), 1–8.

Shambare, R., Rugimbana, R., Zhowa, T. (2012). Are mobile phones the 21st century addiction?
African Journal of Business Management, 6(2). doi:10.5897/AJBM11.1940

Szpakow, a, Stryzhak, a, & Prokopowicz, W. (2011). Evaluation of threat of mobile phone –

addition among Belarusian University students Yanka Kupala State University
of Grodno , Belarus, 1(2), 96–101.

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