Prevalence of Nomophobia and Associated Factors in Adolescent Female Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Iran

Abstract

Background: No mobile phone phobia (nomophobia, abbreviated here to NMP) is often utilized to show the fear of losing one’s mobile phone and connectivity and has a frequency of 40 - 100% in different societies. Objectives: This study aimed to reflect on the prevalence of NMP and the role of demographic and psychological factors in the prediction of NMP among adolescent female high school students in northern Iran. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on adolescent female high school students living in Sari, Mazandaran province, northern Iran, between 2019 - 2020. By employing cluster sampling to select the participants, 588 students were ultimately recruited. The research instruments included a demographic characteristics questionnaire, the Nomophobia Questionnaire, and the Cell Phone Addiction Scale. Using IBM SPSS software (version 26.0), the data were analyzed via Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. Results: The study results revealed that the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the students’ age was 16.1 ± 1.2 years, and 98.6% of the participants experienced various levels of NMP. Additionally, the NMP and mobile phone dependence (MPD) mean ± SD values were equal to 54.75 ± 21.61 and 49.78 ± 18.05, respectively. A statistically significant direct relationship was further observed between the prevalence rate of NMP and the demographic variables, namely age (P = 0.000), type of school (P = 0.016), level of education (P = 0.000), and father’s education (P = 0.012). Conclusions: The study results indicated the high prevalence rate of NMP and MPD in adolescent female high school students. Therefore, further research is needed to examine the depth of psychological aspects of NMP.