Development of Nomophobia Profiles in Education Students through the Use of Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 9;17(21):8252. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17218252.

Abstract

(1) Background: Nomophobia is a recent behavioural addiction phenomenon. The present study proposes the objective of determining levels of nomophobia in students of Education. In addition, it seeks to find evidence regarding whether cross-tabulating variables produces statistically significant differences and to examine whether the contemplated variables, together with nomophobia levels, can be used to generate a student profile. (2) Methods: A total of 510 students (M = 20.69 years) participated in this study. For the collection of information, we developed a Likert-type ad hoc scale of nomophobia. The quantitative data analysis programmes SPSS v.25 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA), STATA.v.15 (StatCorp, Spring, TX, USA) and jamovi v.1.2 (The jamovi project, Sidney, Australia) were used to analyse information collected by the previously described scale. (3) Results: The study concludes the existence of three main levels of correspondence. The first is formed by students with a low level of nomophobia. It is associated with students undertaking the first year of a Master's degree who are older than 24, and in this case, gender does not play a discriminating role. The second describes students with moderate nomophobia. It is associated with females, the degree titles of Pedagogy and Primary Education, undertaking the first or second year of degree study and ages of between 21 and 24. Finally, the third level of correspondence is formed by students with high nomophobia. It is related to the same characteristics as those previously mentioned but ages typically ranging between 17 and 20.

Keywords: education; higher education; multiple correspondence analysis; nomophobia; smartphone.

MeSH terms

  • Australia
  • Bayes Theorem
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Phobic Disorders*
  • Students
  • Surveys and Questionnaires