Factors Associated with Smartphone Addiction Tendency in Korean Adolescents

This study aims to identify the factors associated with smartphone addiction tendency in Korean adolescents. A convenience sample of 502 students from four middle schools participated in the survey for the assessment of demographic, personal factors (resilience and academic stress), environmental factors (parental support, teacher support, friend support, and bullying victimization), as well as smartphone addiction tendency. Smartphone addiction tendency was determined based on the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale for Youth (SAPS) criteria developed by Kim et al. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-squared test, t-test, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and hierarchical logistic regression. Among the adolescents, 17.9% were in the smartphone addiction tendency group. The factors associated with smartphone addiction tendency were subjective economic level, academic stress, parental support, and bullying victimization. Based on the findings of this study, it is considered necessary to approach smartphone addiction management considering personal factors as well as environmental factors.