Associations between Smartphone Addiction Proneness and Psychopathology

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate possible associations between proneness toward smartphone addiction and certain psychopathological variables to evaluate the psychopathological meaning of smartphone addiction. METHODS: Questionnaires were assigned to 755 adults between September and November 2012. We used the Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), and the Barratt Impulsivity Scale-11 (BIS-11). Subjects were classified into two groups according to the scores of the SAPS ; the addiction proneness group and the normal-user group. RESULTS: The addiction proneness group had significantly higher scores than the normal-user group in the BDI, BAI, OCI-R, and BIS-11. The scores of the SAPS were positively correlated with the scores of the BDI, BAI, OCI-R, and BIS-11. Using logistic regression analysis, smartphone addiction proneness showed a significant association with BIS-11. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that smartphone addiction proneness may be associated with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and impulsivity. Furthermore, impulsivity could be a vulnerability marker for smartphone addiction proneness.