Smartphone use and smartphone addiction in middle school students in Korea: Prevalence, social networking service, and game use

Abstract

This study aimed to examine smartphone use patterns, smartphone addiction characteristics, and the predictive factors of the smartphone addiction in middle school students in South Korea. According to the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale scores, 563 (30.9%) were classified as a risk group for smartphone addiction and 1261 (69.1%) were identified as a normal user group. The adolescents used mobile messengers for the longest, followed by Internet surfing, gaming, and social networking service use. The two groups showed significant differences in smartphone use duration, awareness of game overuse, and purposes of playing games. The predictive factors of smartphone addiction were daily smartphone and social networking service use duration, and the awareness of game overuse.