Investigation of Nomophobia Levels of University Students

Smartphones are among the most important non-drug addictions today. Nowadays, young people spend most of their time sharing content in the virtual world, living in line with their impulsive thoughts, following their friends, and updating their status. This causes young people to be isolated from the real life and have sleeping problems, brings about psychological problems and leads to academic failure. This study aims to determine the levels of nomophobia among students studying at university and detect influencing factors. The individuals participating in the study were applied the 9-item introductory information form and the 20-item, 7-point Likert-type Nomophobia Scale (NMP-Q), which is used to determine the level of the fear of being without smartphone. The Nomophobia Scale was detected as X±SD 74.88±28.91. Moreover, when the introductory characteristics and the total nomophobia score were examined, the association between checking phone as soon as waking up, carrying a charger, spending time with phone before sleep, and daily frequency of phone use were detected to be statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Although no significant difference was detected between the total nomophobia score and the variable of sex, when the mean score was compared across sexes, it was seen that males got 73.28 while females got 75.97 and that females were more nomophobic than males.