Prevalence of problematic mobile phone use in British adolescents

Lopez-Fernandez, O. ORCID: 0000-0002-4294-9156, Honrubia-Serrano, L., Freixa-Blanxart, M. and Gibson, W., 2014. Prevalence of problematic mobile phone use in British adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17 (2), pp. 91-98. ISSN 2152-2715

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Abstract

The problematic use of mobile phones among adolescents has not been widely studied. There are very few instruments for assessing potential technological addiction to mobile phones, or for categorizing different types of users or uses. The most widely used scale is the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS), which is used to study adult populations, and has been applied in various forms in international contexts. The aims of this study were to adapt the Spanish version of this scale (MPPUSA) to British adolescents, and then to estimate the prevalence of possible problematic users. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1,529 secondary school pupils aged between 11 and 18 years, with 1,026 completed questionnaires being collected. The analysis showed that the factor and construct validity and reliability were comparable to those obtained in previous studies. The prevalence of problematic users among the students was 10%, and the typical problematic user tended to be an adolescent between 11 and 14 years old, studying in a public school, who considered themselves to be an expert user of this technology, who made extensive use of his/her mobile phone, and who attributed the same problem of use among their peers. These users presented notable scores in all the symptoms covered by the scale used to assess problematic use. In conclusion, the adaptation of the MPPUSA as a screening scale for British adolescents presents good sensitivity and specificity for detecting the main addictive symptoms proposed in this validated version.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Creators: Lopez-Fernandez, O., Honrubia-Serrano, L., Freixa-Blanxart, M. and Gibson, W.
Publisher: Mary Ann Liebert
Date: 10 February 2014
Volume: 17
Number: 2
ISSN: 2152-2715
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1089/cyber.2012.0260DOI
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added: 09 Sep 2016 07:52
Last Modified: 19 Oct 2017 13:12
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28421

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