Depression, stress and obsessive –compulsive disorder as predictors of smartphone addiction among smartphone users in Ibadan

Abstract

Research has shown that the addictive rate of smartphone is 8.7% and it is expected to increase with the rise of smartphone users. This study examines depression, stress and obsessive-compulsive disorder as predictors of smartphone addiction among smartphone users in Ibadan. Smartphone addiction is one of the biggest 21st century non- drug addiction because of its compulsive – addictive nature. However, there is a dearth of such researches in Nigeria. The research employed a cross sectional survey using Expost-facto design. Three hundred and seventy one (371) smartphone users were purposefully sampled. Their age ranges between 21 years to 60 years. The standardized research instruments used were; Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS), Florida Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Inventory (FOCI) and smartphone addiction scale developed for this research. Psychological variables; anxiety, depression, stress and OCD jointly predicted smartphone addiction (R² = 0.25, F (4,300) = 30.05 p < .01) but only anxiety ((β = - .20 t = -2.51, p<.05) and OCD (β = .33, t= 6.46, p<.001) individually predicted smartphone addiction. There was significant effect of occupational status on smartphone addiction (F (3,368) = .38, p>.05), students reported higher smartphone addiction than the employed, and the unemployed. There was no gender differences in smartphone addiction among smartphone users (t=.38, df =369, p>.05). 119 (32.1%) were high on smartphone addiction. This study demonstrated that the incidence of smartphone addiction is on the increase among smartphone users in Nigeria. Thus there is need to educate smartphone users on their vulnerability to smartphone addiction especially if they have some level of underlining psychological distress. The study also notes that anxiety disorders are on the increase, mental health worker should rise up to challenges posed by the increase.