A cellular phone has become a necessity in daily life and made our lives more convenient, but it is also causing problems. Therefore, this study aimed at providing basic materials for the development of health education materials that help to encourag...
A cellular phone has become a necessity in daily life and made our lives more convenient, but it is also causing problems. Therefore, this study aimed at providing basic materials for the development of health education materials that help to encourage the appropriate use of cell phones and to prevent cell phone addition-related problems. To this end, the study examined cell phone use among high school students and the effects of cell phone addition on students' mental health and impulsiveness.
The subjects of this study included a total of 850 first-and second-year male and female students from three academic high schools and three vocational high schools in C city. A survey using questionnaires was conducted for about two weeks from May 20th, 2008 to June 3rd, 2008. In order to distribute and collect questionnaires, the indirect questionnaire method involving the nursing teacher and homeroom teachers of each school was applied. Of collected questionnaires, a total of 804 questionnaires were used for a final analysis, after excluding 46 questionnaires which were either insincerely answered or not answered completely.
With regard to data analysis, reliability analysis, frequency analysis, x²-test, t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient were performed using SPSS WIN 12.0 program.
The following results were obtained in the study.
1. Of subjects, the number of students whose total score of cell phone addition belongs to the highest 25percent (the group with higher addition score) was 213 and the number of students whose score belongs to the lowest 25percent (the group with lower addition score) was 204.
2. Among subjects' general features, gender, school (academic or vocational), academic results, the level of a student's satisfaction with school life, whether or not a student has a friend of the opposite sex, monthly pocket money and the level of parents' respect for a student are the areas the two groups showed statistically significant differences.
3. Among the actual conditions of subjects' cell phone use, cell phone use duration, total use time, use time per day, the number of text messages used per day, monthly cell phone fee, experience of being scold for inappropriate cell phone use, a student's opinion on school's regulation of cell phone use. whether or not a student use a cell phone during class, the level of a student's satisfaction with his/her current cell phone and the most frequently used cell phone function are the areas the two group displayed statistically significant differences.
4. With regard to the difference of the index of students' mental health according to their scores of cell phone addiction, the average score of the group with higher addiction score was higher than that of the group with lower score. In addition, in all of nine sub-areas the average scores of the two groups were significantly different.
5. In respect to the difference of students' impulsiveness according to their scores of cell phone addiction, the group with higher addiction score displayed higher average score than the group with lower score. Besides, in all of three sub-areas, the two groups showed significant difference in their average scores.
6. The relation between cell phone addiction and mental health (r= .399, p< 0.01), the relation between cell phone addiction and impulsiveness (r= .383, p< 0.01) and the relation between mental health and impulsiveness (r= .309, p< 0.01) all showed positive correlation and were statistically significant.
In conclusion, this study is significant in that it examined correlation among cell phone addiction, mental health and impulsiveness. This study results are expected to provide basic materials for the development of a program that helps to recognize both physical and mental problems related to addictive use of cell phones and to educate students on mediation and prevention methods. Especially, it should be recognized that lots of students have problems with cell phone use, and thus aggressive measures should be taken to prevent them from being addicted to cell phones. Besides, considering that the age children first use cell phones is going down, education on cell phone use should starts at elementary school. As cell phones mean more than the tools of communication for many students, various measures should be sought to lead students to the appropriate use of cell phones rather than unconditionally regulate students' cell phone use.