Do Chinese and British university students use smartphones differently? A cross-cultural mixed methods study

Yang, Z. ORCID: 0000-0003-0489-9132, Asbury, K. and Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 2018. Do Chinese and British university students use smartphones differently? A cross-cultural mixed methods study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 17 (3), pp. 644-657. ISSN 1557-1874

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Abstract

Although an increasing number of studies have focused on problematic smartphone use and smartphone addiction, few of these studies have employed both quantitative and qualitative methods or employed a cross-cultural design. A limited number of studies have compared eastern and western groups. The present study investigates the prevalence and causes of problematic smartphone use among Chinese and British undergraduates. A sample of n = 778 undergraduates participated in this study (475 Chinese students and 303 British students). Students’ scores on a self-report measure of problematic smartphone use were compared across country and gender. Qualitative data were analyzed using the framework approach. Chinese undergraduates reported significantly higher levels of PSU than British undergraduates, with a medium to large effect size. Females scored significantly higher than males in both groups. Chinese students reported that the sharp transition from a strictly managed high school life to a freer university life affected their level of smartphone use. This study indicates the importance of considering cultural and educational backgrounds when conducting studies on problematic smartphone use.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
Creators: Yang, Z., Asbury, K. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher: Springer
Date: 6 November 2018
Volume: 17
Number: 3
ISSN: 1557-1874
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1007/s11469-018-0024-4DOI
24Publisher Item Identifier
Rights: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 15 Nov 2018 08:53
Last Modified: 17 Sep 2019 14:13
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34984

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