Nomophobia and relationships with latent classes of solitude

Abstract

Recently, nomophobia (separation anxiety from mobile phone) has become a common phenomenon. The authors’ main purpose was to explore latent classes of solitude behaviors and how they are related to nomophobia. Chinese versions of the Nomophobia Scale and the Solitude Behaviour Scale were used in a sample of college students (351 female and 327 male). Latent class analysis, analysis of variance, and regression analysis were employed to classify solitude behaviors and explore the relationship between solitude and nomophobia. A six-class model best fit the data (BIC = 60086.49). Significant differences among the classes were found on nomophobia. Loneliness, social avoidance, and eccentricity significantly predicted nomophobia. Solitude behaviors of college students can be divided into six latent classes. The classes with a high response preference for solitude scored higher on nomophobia, especially the fear of losing an Internet connection. Not self-determined solitude and negative-solitude had a positive effect on nomophobia.