Impact of Nomophobia and Screen Time on Late Adolescents’ Physical Activity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52053/jpap.v6i3.423Keywords:
Late Adolescents, Nomophobia, Physical Activity, Screen TimeAbstract
A fear of being without smartphone, Nomophobia has emerged as a serious digital concern in late adolescents that may influence their physical activity and screen use. This study aims to investigate the relationship between nomophobia, screen time, and physical activity among late adolescents in Lahore, Pakistan. A sample of N = 195 was recruited using convenience sampling from various public and private colleges/high schools in Lahore. The current study used Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) (Yildirim & Correia, 2015), Questionnaire for Screen Time of Adolescents (QueST) (Knebel et al., 2020), and Physical Activity Questionnaire (PAQ-A) (Kowalski et al., 1997) to measure respective variables among late adolescents. The findings suggest that nomophobia and physical activity are negatively correlated, although the correlation is not statistically significant. Moreover, regression analysis showed that nomophobia and screen time negatively predict physical activity, but the effect size was non-significant. Male participants were found to be significantly more physically active than females. The findings concluded that the higher score of nomophobia might be associated with lower physical activity in youngsters, impacting their physical and mental health. The research suggested that parents, educational institutions, and technology experts should develop policies, interventions, and technologies that promote healthier digital habits and encourage an active lifestyle among youngsters.
References
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens, social media & technology 2018. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018
Anshari, M. (2019). Smartphone addictions and nomophobia among youth. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 14(3), 242–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2019.1624340.
Aulbach, M. B., Konttinen, H., Gardner, B., Kujala, E., Araujo-Soares, V., Sniehotta, F. F., & Ta, T. (2021). A dual process model to predict adolescents’ screen time and physical activity. Journal of Health Psychology, 26(6), 827-846. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2021.1988598
Awais, M. A., Chaudhery, M. M., Khan, M. S., Butt, A. U. A., Malik, A. R., Khan, M. N., Khalid, A., Mahmood, M., Afzal, M. T., & Waseem, M. H. (2021). Factors contributing to distress among school- and college-going adolescents during COVID-19 lockdown: A cross-sectional study conducted in Sibi Balochistan, Pakistan. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 11(1), 317 https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1313_20.
Bhattacharya, S., Bashar, M. A., Srivastava, A., & Singh, A. (2019). Nomophobia: No mobile
phone phobia. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 8(4), 1297–1300. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_71_19
Bretherton, I. (1992). The origins of attachment theory: John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 759–775. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.759
Caspersen, C. J., Powell, K. E., & Christenson, G. M. (1985). Physical activity, exercise, and physical fitness: definitions and distinctions for health-related research. Public Health Reports, 100(2), 126. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1424733/
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1104_01
Elhai, J. D., Levine, J. C., Dvorak, R. D., & Hall, B. J. (2016). Fear of missing out, need for touch, anxiety and depression are related to problematic smartphone use. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.079.
Ijaz, S., Ismail, S., Fayyaz, L., Ashraf, A., Razzaq, Y., & Chaudhry, M. A. (2020). Physical activity, screen time, and emotional wellbeing of population during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. Biomedica, 31, 339–345. https://biomedicapk.com/articles/10.24911/BioMedica/5-77
Kanmani, A., Bhavani, U., & Maragatham, R. S. (2017). Nomophobia—An insight into its psychological aspects in India. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 4(2), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.25215/0402.067
Knebel, M. T. G., Costa, B. G. G., dos Santos, P. C., de Sousa, A. C. F. C., & Silva, K. S. (2020). The conception, validation, and reliability of the Questionnaire for Screen Time of Adolescents (QueST) [Preprint]. SciELO Preprints. https://doi.org/10.1590/SciELOPreprints.1184
Kowalski, K. C., Crocker, P. R. E., & Kowalski, N. P. (1997). Convergent validity of the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A). Pediatric Exercise Science, 9(4), 342–352. https://doi.org/10.1123/pes.9.4.342
Kumar, R., Kumari, S., Bharti, P., & Sharma, D. (2021). Nomophobia: A rising concern among Indian students. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 30(2), 230–233. https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_134_21
Liu, W., Chen, J.-S., Gan, W. Y., Poon, W. C., Tung, S. E. H., Lee, L. J., Xu, P., Chen, I.-H., Griffiths, M. D., & Lin, C.-Y. (2022). Associations of problematic internet use, weight-related self-stigma, and nomophobia with physical activity: Findings from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Malaysia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12135. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912135.
McLeod, S. (2023). John Bowlby’s attachment theory. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html
Pandya, A., & Lodha, P. (2021). Social connectedness, excessive screen time during COVID-19 and mental health: a review of current evidence. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3, 45. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2021.684137
Qin, F., & Song, Y. (2020). Physical activity, screen time, and emotional well-being during the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in China. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 2145. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062145.
Rideout, V., Peebles, A., Mann, S., & Robb, M. B. (2019). The Common Sense Census: Media use by tweens and teens, 2019. Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2019-census-8- to-18-full-report-updated.pdf
Schmidt, S. C. E., Anedda, B., Burchartz, A., Eichsteller, A., Kolb, S., Nigg, C., Niessner, C., Oriwol, D., Worth, A., & Woll, A. (2020). Physical activity and screen time of children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 lockdown in Germany: A natural experiment. Scientific Reports, 10, 21780. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78438-4.
Tandon, P. S., Zhou, C., Johnson, A. M., Gonzalez, E. S., & Kroshus, E. (2021). Association of children’s physical activity and screen time with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. JAMA Network Open, 4(10), e2127892. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.27892.
Torlak, M. S., Gerçek, H., & Ünüvar, B. S. (2022). Relationship between physical activity and nomophobia in university students: A cross-sectional study. Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, 9(2), 176–181. https://doi.org/10.5152/ADDICTA.2022.22010
Tremblay, M. S., LeBlanc, A. G., Kho, M. E., Saunders, T. J., Larouche, R., Colley, R. C., Goldfield, G., & Connor Gorber, S. (2011). Systematic review of sedentary behavior and health indicators in school-aged children and youth. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8, 98. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-8-98
Yildirim, C., & Correia, A.-P. (2015). Exploring the dimensions of nomophobia: Development and validation of a self-reported questionnaire. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 130– 137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.059
Zeb, A., Bibi, H., Khan, M. J., & Awan, S. N. (2022). Nomophobia, sleep deprivation and leisure activities in adolescents and young people. Pakistan Journal of Physiology, 18(2), 23–27. https://doi.org/10.69656/pjp.v18i3.1447
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sadia, Sitara Kanwal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License (https://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-Commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the Journal website at (https://iprpk.com/ojs/index.php/jpap)
