INTRODUCTION:

Adolescents are uniquely different from all other stages of human development especially from physiological and cognitive perspectives. It is considered as the most challenging developmental period. Today 20% of people in the world are adolescents contribute to 1.2 billion people worldwide¹. The drastic changes in technology makes the mobile phone become an integral part of human life³. Smart phones are the new generation of mobile phones that provide integrated communication and entertainment services with a rapid rise in its use. Smart phone addiction has now emerged as challenging public health problem among adolescents².

A cross-sectional study on mobile phone usage pattern conducted among 200 medical students in Kerala showed that 35% of students were frequent users, 25% feel alone and unsafe without mobile phone and remaining students are mobile dependent⁴. Research shows that abnormal use of smart phone among adolescents can cause severe psychopathological disorders such as problematic behaviors, somatic symptoms, attention deficits, depression, aggression and so on. Therefore, the investigator felt the need to conduct the study to assessthe impact of smart phone addiction on psychological well being among adolescent girls.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

A study to assess the impact of smart phone addiction on psychological wellbeing among adolescent girls in a selected school at Kottayam district.

OBJECTIVES:

· To determine the impact of smart phone addiction on psychological wellbeing

· To find out the association between impact of smart phone addiction with selected demographic variables.

HYPOTHESIS:

H1: There is a significant relation between smart phone addiction and selected demographic variable.

METHODOLOGY:

The research approach and design adopted for the present study is quantitative approach anddescriptive survey design. Population in this study consist of 30 adolescent girls who were studying at St. Mary’s HSS Kidangoor. A convenient sampling technique was employed to select the sample. The approval for the study was granted by the Research Committee of the College of Nursing. The instruments used for data collection comprised of two sessions.

Session 1: Demographic Variables of the Sample:

This session is designed to collect the data on age, type of family, religion, employment status of parents and duration of being alone at home.

Research Design:

The research design of the present study is descriptive design.

Settings of the Study:

Setting of the study isSt.Mary’s H.S.S Kidangoor.

Population:

In this study population is the adolescent girls between 13-15 years.

Sample:

In this study sample is the adolescent girls of 13-15 years.

Sample Size:

In this study sample consist of 30 higher secondary school students.

Sampling Technique:

Convenient sampling technique is used in this study.

CRITERIA FOR SAMPLE SELECTION:

Inclusion Criteria:

Adolescents who are:

· Users of smart phone.

· Studying in English medium.

· Available at the time of data collection.

Exclusion Criteria:

Adolescents who are:

· Staying at hostel.

· Not willing for data collection.

Methods of Data Collection:

Data Collection Tool:

In this study the instrument is a rating scale with 30 statements related to smart phone use by the adolescents. Tool is developed by reviewing the literature and based on experts opinion.

Procedure for Data Collection:

Section 1: Questionnaireis used to collect socio demographic variables.

Section 2: Smartphone use Rating Scale:

It include 30 statements for assessing the smart phone addiction among adolescent girls of 13-15 years. The answer of which are recorded by respondents. There are 3 scores for each question and they are ‘not at all’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘always’. The questions were divided based on certain psychological aspects which incude;

Psychological aspects	Question number
Emotional	1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 14, 18, 23
Behavioral	3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30
Cognitive	15, 17
Spiritual	16, 25
Self esteem	21, 22, 26

Maximum score is 90 and minimum score is 30. According to the score obtained smart phone addiction was classified into

· 30-50: Not addicted

· 51-70: Partially addicted

· 71-90: Addicted

Analysis of Demographic Variables:

Section 1:

Table no 1-Distribution of sample according to demographic data

This section deals with distribution of samples according to demographic variables which include ages, type of family, religion, occupation, duration of being alone at home, having own smart phone or not and interested in smart phone

Table No. 1: Distribution of Sample According to Demographic Data

N=30

Demographic variables	Frequency	Percentage (%)
1.Age
13 year	25	83.33%
14 year	5	16.66%
15 year	0	0%
2. Type of family
nuclear family	24	80%
joint family	6	20%
3.Religion
christian	22	73.33%
hindu	8	26.66%
muslim	0	0%
others	0	0%
4. Employment
yes	30	100%
no	0	0%

Figure 1: Distribution of Sample According to Duration of Being Alone at Home

Figure 2: Distribution of Sample According to Having Own a Smart Phone or Not.

Figure 3: Distribution of Sample According to Interested in Smart Phone.

INFERENCE:

· Data represented in figure 1 shows that among 30 samples 9(30%) samples were alone at home less than 3 hours ,7 samples were alone at home 3-5 hours, 3 samples were alone at home more than 5 hours and 11 samples are not alone at home.

· Data represented in figure 2 shows that among the 30 samples, 11 (36.66%) have own smart phone and 19(63.33%) does not have own smart phone.

· Data represented in figure 3 shows that among the 30 samples 1(3.33%) were interested in games, 28 (93%) were interested in other social media apps, 1 (3.33%) were interested in both.

Section 2:

Findings related to impact of smart phone addiction on psychological well being among adolescents between 13-15 years.

This section deals with analysis and interpretation of impact of smart phone

addiction on psychological wellbeing among adolescents between 13-15 years. Impact of smart phone addiction was assessed by using a smart phone addiction rating scale containing 30 statement. (Maximum score is 3 mark and minimum score is 1 mark).

According to score obtained by each sample, smart phone addiction was categorized into 3.

Table No. 2: Distribution of sample based on smart phone addiction N=30

Score	Grade
30-50	Not addicted
51-70	Partially addicted
71-90	Addicted

Table No. 3: Frequency and percentage of sample according to impact of smart phone addiction. N=30

Smart phone addiction score	Grade	Frequency	Percentage of sample
30-50	Not addicted	21	70%
51-70	Partially addicted	9	30%
71-90	Addicted	0	0%

Figure 4: Distribution of samples according to impact of smart phone addiction

Table No. 4: Mean, Median and standard deviation of samples according to impact of smart phone addiction. N=30

Variables	Mean	Median	Standard deviation
Smart phone addiction	47.03	45.5	6.89

Association between Demographic Variables and Impact of Smart Phone Addiction

Section 3:

This section deals with the association of demographic variables such as age, type of family, duration of alone at home and having own smart phone.

Table No. 5: Association between demographic variables and impact of smart phone addiction N=30

Variables	Chi square value (x2)	Df	Significance
Age of child	0.281	4	Not significant
Type of family	0.038	2	Not significant
Duration of alone at home	1.343	6	Not significant
Having own smart phone	3.802	2	Not significant

The above table depicts there is no significant association between impact of smart phone addiction with selected demographic variables like age of child, type of family, duration of alone at home and having own smart phone or not.

DISCUSSION:

The present study was under taken to assess the impact of smart phone addiction on psychological well being among adolescents between 13-15 years. The following section deals with discussion of the study under following headings.

· Finding related to impact of smart phone addiction on psychological wellbeing among adolescents between 13-15 years.

· Finding related to association between impact of smart phone addiction and selected demographic variables

The study showed that, among the 30 samples only 9(30%) is partially addicted, 21(70%) were not addicted. The study result shows that no one is addicted to smart phone.

At the present study related that there was no significant association between impact of smart phone addiction with selected demographic variables like age of child, type of family, duration of alone at home and having own smart phone and not.

RESULT:

The study shows that, among the 30 samples only 9(30%) is partially addicted, 21(70%) were not addicted. The study result shows that no one is addicted to smart phone.

NURSING IMPLICATION:

By assessing the impact of smart phone addiction on psychological wellbeing of adolescent girls between 13-15 years, the nurse can plan activities to improve the psychological wellbeing of adolescent girls who are smart phone addicted.

Nursing Education:

The curriculum of nursing must include lessons on psychological impact of smart phone addiction and management in detail and the student nurse should be exposed to adequate coping mechanism.

Nursing Research:

The nurse researcher should conduct researchers on way to manage psychological effect on smart phone addiction among adolescent girls. This will provide scientific data and adds more scientific knowledge to nursing profession. The nurse researcher should conduct work shops, seminars, and poster sections and should publish research findings in journals to communicate findings to nursing profession.

Nursing Adminisration:

The nurse administrator should monitor smartphone usage among children in the paediatric wards. If young children are observed using mobile phones, parents and children should be educated on the potential consequences of excessive screen time. Additionally, "Mobile-Free Zone" signage should be prominently displayed on the walls of the paediatric wards.

CONCLUSION:

The aim of the study to assess the impact of smart phone addiction among adolescent girls between 13-15 years. The following conclusion were drawn from the findings of the study. Among the 30 samples 9(30%) were partially addicted, 21(70%) were not addicted. Final result shows that no one is addicted to smart phone. There is no significant association between selected demographic variables and impact on smart phone addiction.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

· As a similar study can be conducted with a large sample so that findings can be generalized

· A similar study can be conducted on different adolescent girls to assess the impact of smart phone addiction among adolescent girls between 13-15 years

LIMITATION:

· The study is limited to adolescent girls of age group of 13-15 years

· The study is limited to selected schools in kottayam

· The study is limited to small number of samples

· Adolescents who are studying in English medium

REFERENCE:

1. Elango K. et al. Effect of internet addition on life among adolescents. The Nurse International. 2021:1-8

2. L. Ruban Jones et al. Effect of game addiction among students. The Nurse International. 2021: 16-22

3. Akhila Thankachan et al. A study to assess the level of social media app addiction among adolescents. Asian Journal of Nursing Education and Research. 2019: 312-316

4. Ashvini KM, Arathi TV et al. Effect of smart phone on health: A study on nursing students. International Journal of Nursing Education and Research. 2020: 432-435

5. Monika Y, Bhuvanerwari. P. Assess the knowledge regarding smartphone usage among adolescent girls in cheyyir. International Journal of Development Research. 2017; 7.

6. Soumyasonalinka. A cross sectional study to measure the level of internet addition among adolescents in manchanathdevu high school. International Journal of Nursing Education and Research. 2019; 7: 1-5

Received on 30.05.2025 Revised on 25.06.2025

Accepted on 17.07.2025 Published on 14.08.2025

Available online from August 23, 2025

Int. J. of Advances in Nursing Management. 2025;13(3):174-178.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2652.2025.00034

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