Relationship between Problematic Smartphone Use and Social Anxiety Among University Students: A Case of United States International University- Africa

George Ong`are, M.A. in Clinical Psychology; & Stella Nyagwencha, Ph.D., United States International University-Africa

The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship between problematic smartphone use and social anxiety among United States International University-Africa students, Kenya. A total of 106 students were selected via convenience sampling comprising of 68.9% females (N = 73) and 31.1% males (N = 33). The average age of the entire respondents was 28 + (SD: 0.59). The theoretical framework was based on Self-determination theory and descriptive correlational design was the research methodological design. To measure problematic smartphone use (PSU), smartphone addiction scale-short version (SAS-SV) was adopted whilst social anxiety scale (SIAS) was used to measure social anxiety. Result of the study indicated that 58.5% of the university students had moderate levels of PSU, 30.2% had low PSU, 9.4 % high PSU and only 1.9% indicated no presence of PSU. For social anxiety, 17% had high symptoms of social anxiety, 6.6% moderate, and 76.4% low symptoms of social anxiety. Pearson correlation test was used to determine the relationship between the variables and the findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive correlation (r = 0.222, P = 0.02) between problematic smartphone use and social anxiety among students. This study concludes that there was a relationship between problematic smartphone use and social anxiety among university students. Findings therefore highlighted the need for early intervention to reduce problematic smartphone use and social anxiety among university students.

Keywords: Problematic smartphone use, social anxiety, gender difference, university students, positive relationship, smartphone addiction, mobile phone use, cell phone