A Comparative Study on Academic Performance of Smartphone Addicts and Non- Addicts

Abstract

Due to the multifaceted capabilities of the smartphone, college students have become increasingly. susceptible to the overuse of and addiction to smartphone use. This susceptibility has led to many negative effects both mentally and physically in addition to the creation of new pathologies. There are many scales to measure smartphone addiction; however, scales to measure smartphone addiction are scarce and have limitations that call into question their validity and reliability, especially for use on Indian college students. The current study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of a diagnostic tool to measure smartphone addiction in Indian college students. A total of 146 young adults from both the genders ranging from 18-24 years of age were recruited using scaling techniques. The research aimed to account for the limitations that were present in previous scales and to further the support of smartphone addiction as a valid diagnosis that should be recognized by reputable resources. The results found Smartphone Addiction scale to be reliable across time in addition to having internal consistency. Additionally, the evaluation of construct validity using positive and negative correlations indicated support for a valid measure. This study provided a new smartphone addiction measurement tool that may allow for a way to clinically diagnosis addiction among college students.