Smartphone Use Among University Students During COVID-19 Quarantine: An Ethical Trigger

Abstract

To reduce the spread of COVID-19, Jordan enforced 10 weeks of home quarantine in the spring of 2020. A cross-sectional study was designed to assess this extended quarantine's effect on smartphone addiction levels among undergraduates. A random sample of 6,157 undergraduates completed an online questionnaire (mean age 19.79 ± 1.67 years; males 28.7%). The questionnaire contains different sections to collect socio-demographic, socio-economic, academic, quarantine-related information, and smartphone usage. The smartphone addiction scale-short version was used to assess the degree of addiction during the quarantine. The mean addiction score across the whole sample was 35.66 ± 12.08, while the prevalence of addiction among participants was 62.4% (63.5% in males and 61.9% in females). The majority of the participants (85%) reported that their smartphone usage during the quarantine increased or greatly increased (27.6 and 57.2%, respectively), with some 42% using their smartphones for more than 6 h a day. Nevertheless, three-quarters of the students wished to reduce their smartphone usage. Several demographic and quarantine factors have been assessed, and students' gender, the field of study, parental education, household income in addition to the location of quarantine (urban, rural) and the house specifications (apartment, independent house, with/without a garden) showed statistically significant associations with smartphone addiction during the quarantine. Female students, students studying scientific- and medical-related majors compared to those studying humanity majors, those with higher incomes, those who had been quarantined in an apartment without a garden, and those who lived in urban areas showed significantly higher addiction scores.