Investigating Mobile Phone Addiction in High School Students*

This study intends to reveal the relationships between high school students’ mobile phone addiction and their levels of self-esteem and loneliness. The general survey method has been applied in the research. The study group consists of 502 volunteer students studying in five high schools in Samsun’s provincial center during the 2017-2018 academic year. Of the students participating in the study, 272 are female and 230 are male. The study data have been collected using the Mobile Phone Addiction Scale, the Rosenberg SelfEsteem Scale, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and a personal information form. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test has been used to test whether the data obtained in the study have normal distribution. The t-test has been used for independent groups in order to reveal the differentiating circumstances of cell phone addiction according to gender, and correlation analysis has been conducted to determine whether a relationship exists between cell phone addiction and their levels of loneliness and self-esteem. Additionally, Cohen’s d value has also been calculated to determine the effect size. The results of the study reveal students’ levels of mobile phone addiction to differ significantly in terms of gender, no significant relationship to exist between mobile phone addiction and loneliness, and a significant relationship to exist between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction. In the direction of the obtained results, evaluating individuals’ self-esteem levels in the context of guidance and psychological counseling services for preventing and treating mobile phone addiction in secondary education institutions is thought to play an important role.

To cite this article: Hoşoğlu, R. (2019). Investigating mobile phone addiction in high school students. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions 6, 51−68. http://dx.doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2019.6.1.0024