Association between Nomophobia, Loneliness and Distress among Adolescents

Abstract

Nomophobia is a recent concept that captures the fear individuals experience when they are unable to utilize the features and advantages offered by smartphones. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between nomophobia and various emotional challenges and distress factors. To achieve this goal, the study employed several measuring instruments and collected data from a sample of 300 Pakistani students, with an average age of 22 years. Data was analysed using SPSS-23 and hypothesis was tested through Pearson correlation t-test and regression analysis. “Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMPQ-20)”; “Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale (SELSA-15)”; and “Emotional Distress Questionnaire (EDSQ-49)”. The results of Pearson correlation found that nomophobia (t=14.83) was significantly and positively correlated with loneliness (t=13.65) and distress (t=13.73) among adolescents with significant value .000. Significant correlations between nomophobia (M=73.28 and SD=27.19) and examined variables loneliness (M=60.63 and SD=20.73) and distress (M=46.37 and SD=18.80) were determined. It was found that nomophobia acts as major predictors in terms of loneliness and distress factors.