Association of Smartphone Addiction with Depression and Anxiety in Sri Lankan Young Adults

Authors:
Gunathillake N., University of Colombo (Sri Lanka)
Hettigoda K., University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka)

Keywords

Smartphone, addiction, depression, anxiety, young adults

Abstract

Smartphone addiction is a growing concern in modern technophilic society. The main objective of the present study was to explore the association of smartphone addiction with depression and anxiety in Sri Lankan young adults. The specific objective of the study was to translate the Smartphone Addiction Scale – Short Version (Kown et al, 2013b) into Sinhala and do a partial validation to adapt it in the Sri Lankan context. The study adopted a cross-sectional, non-experimental, and quantitative research design. The study sample consisted of 786 Sri Lankan young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 years who were active smartphone users. Data were collected exclusively online and the participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling techniques. The 10-item SAS-SV was used to assess smartphone addiction in the sample. The depression and anxiety subscales of DASS-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) were used to assess depression and anxiety of participants. A systematic and standard procedure was followed to translate the SAS-SV in to Sinhala and the content and consensual validity of the scale were established using the Delphi process. The translated SAS-SV Sinhala version demonstrated high internal consistency reliability of Cronbach’s alpha .87. Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess the strength and direction of the linear relationship between smartphone addiction, depression, and anxiety. A multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the proportion of variance in smartphone addiction that could be explained by depression and anxiety. The results of the correlation analysis indicated that depression and anxiety were significantly and positively correlated to smartphone addiction. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that depression and anxiety significantly predicted smartphone addiction. The findings of the present study emphasize the importance of addressing the underlying psychological issues of young adults and encouraging them to productively use their smartphones.

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