The purpose of this study was to examine the influences between social anxiety and smartphone addiction of university students, and the moderating role of the emotional expressiveness in the relationship between social anxiety and smartphone addiction...
The purpose of this study was to examine the influences between social anxiety and smartphone addiction of university students, and the moderating role of the emotional expressiveness in the relationship between social anxiety and smartphone addiction. A total of 430 university school students in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province in the study. Participants completed questionnaires assessing a Korean version of the social interaction disturbance (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale: SIAS), the Korean version of the social fear(Social Phobia Scale: SPS), the expressed emotion (Berkeley Expressivity Questionnair: BEQ), the adult smartphone addiction, and cell phone use motive scale.
The results of this study were as follows; First, social anxiety and smartphone addiction have a positive relationship, while social anxiety and emotional expressiveness have a negative relationship. In addition, emotional expressiveness and smartphone addiction have a negative relationship.
Second, social anxiety turned out to be a statistically significant predictor of smartphone addiction; however emotional expressiveness was not a significant predictor of smartphone addiction, indicating that emotional expressiveness moderates the relationship between social anxiety and smartphone addiction.
Third, in terms of the relationship between smartphone addiction and the lower level factors behind the motives of using cellphones, the factors of spending time and relief showed a highly positive relationship with smartphone addiction, whereas sociality showed a slightly negative relationship. In other words, the higher the smartphone addiction level of an individual, the individual tends to use his or her cellphone merely to spend time or feel relief rather than for social interaction.
The results of the study indicate that emotional expressiveness plays a significant role in the process of social anxiety in regards to smartphone addiction of university students. In particular, the results suggest that in order to prevent smartphone addiction and to lower social anxiety, it is necessary for an individual to express themselves more regularly, particularly positive emotions.