TITLE:
Relationship of Smartphone Dependence to General Health Status and Personality Traits among University Students
AUTHORS:
Masahiro Toda, Satoko Ezoe, Kanae Mure, Tatsuya Takeshita
KEYWORDS:
Dependence, General Health Status, Personality Traits, Smartphone, University Students, Wakayama Smartphone-Dependence Scale (WSDS)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
Vol.6 No.10,
October
11,
2016
ABSTRACT: We investigated associations between smartphone dependence and general health status or personality traits. To 197 medical university students, we administered a set of self-reporting questionnaires designed to evaluate these parameters. For males, smartphone dependence positively correlated with somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, and emotional instability, and negatively correlated with agreeableness. For females, smartphone dependence positively correlated with somatic symptoms, severe depression, and extraversion, and negatively correlated with social dysfunction. These findings suggest that smartphone dependence may be associated with general health status or personality traits and that there may be a gender difference in these associations.