Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prevalence, Relationship to Academic Procrastination, Quality of Life, Gender and Educational Stage

Ismael Salamah Albursan; Mohammad Farhan Al Qudah; Hafidha Sulaiman Al-Barashdi; Salaheldin Farah Bakhiet; Eqbal Darandari; Sumayyah S Al-Asqah; Heba Ibraheem Hammad; Mohammed M Al-Khadher; Saleem Qara; Sultan Howedey Al-Mutairy; Huthaifa I Albursan

doi:10.3390/ijerph191610439

Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prevalence, Relationship to Academic Procrastination, Quality of Life, Gender and Educational Stage

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 22;19(16):10439. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191610439.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
² The Research Council, Sultanate of Oman, Muscat 123, Oman.
³ Department of Special Education, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, College of Education, Qassim University, Qassim 52571, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Princess Alia College, AL Balqa Applied University, Amman 11821, Jordan.
⁶ Department of Basic Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Middle East University, Amman 11831, Jordan.
⁷ Department of Educational Technology, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Faculty of Medicine, Hashmite University, Zarka 13133, Jordan.

Abstract

The current study aims to identify the level and proportions of smartphone addiction, and academic procrastination among university students in the light of the Corona pandemic; identify the differences in smartphone addiction, academic procrastination, and quality of life according to gender and stage of study; and revealing the predictive ability of academic procrastination and quality of life for smartphone addiction. Methods: 556 male and female students from Saudi universities participated in the study, whose ages ranged from 18 to 52 years. Measures of academic procrastination and quality of life were used, in addition to the Italian scale of smartphone addiction, which was translated and checked for validity and reliability. Results: The results revealed that 37.4% of the sample were addicted to smartphone use, while 7.7% had a high level of procrastination, and 62.8% had an average level of procrastination. The results did not show statistically significant differences in smartphone addiction and quality of life according to gender and educational stage, while there were statistically significant differences in academic procrastination according to gender in favor of males, and according to stage of education in favor of undergraduate students. The results also revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between academic procrastination and smartphone addiction, and a statistically significant negative relationship between smartphone addiction and quality of life. A negative relationship between quality of life and academic procrastination was found. The results also revealed that addiction to smartphones could be predicted through academic procrastination and quality of life.

Keywords: COVID-19; prevalence rates; smartphone addiction.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Female
Humans
Internet Addiction Disorder
Male
Middle Aged
Pandemics
Prevalence
Procrastination*
Quality of Life
Reproducibility of Results
Smartphone
Students
Universities
Young Adult

Grants and funding

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding this work through Research Group no. RG-1441-541.