Violation of psychological stability in adolescents with smartphone addiction, methods of correction and prevention

Abstract

The progressive growth of smartphone addiction (SА) among adolescents, the associated disorders in the psychological and emotional state and adaptive capabilities of the user’s body, is an urgent problem of modern medicine and psychology. Purpose. To assess the level of psychological stability in adolescents addicted to smartphones, to present methods for correcting and preventing its violations. Materials and methods. The object of the study was 217 adolescents aged 15–18 years (80 boys and 137 girls) – students of two secondary schools in the city of Krasnoyarsk, with the presence of SА (main group; n=33) and without SА (comparison group; n=184). Methods: online survey using Google forms of test questionnaires, statistical methods. Examination program: assessment of the presence of SM (according to the questionnaire Kwon M., Kim D.-J., Cho H., 2013); analysis of the prevalence of SА (taking into account gender and age); assessment of the level of psychological stability (stress resistance) of adolescents based on the “adaptation potential” indicator of N.B. Semenova’s questionnaire. Results. The prevalence of SM in the total sample of those examined was 15.2%, with a predominance in girls (21.2%) than boys (5.0%; p=0.0014) and a higher incidence in girls 15–16 years old (22.7%) than their peers aged 17–18 years (19.3%; p=0.0410). Among adolescents with SA, there were significantly fewer (9.1%) individuals with a high level of adaptive potential and, accordingly, lower resistance to stress than among individuals without SA (28.8%; p=0.0172). Conclusion. The results of the study revealed an association between smartphone-dependent behavior in adolescents and their lower level of psychological stability and greater susceptibility to the influence of stressful situations. It is necessary to carry out a set of corrective and preventive measures to increase the stress resistance of adolescents and level out the negative consequences of their problematic use of electronic gadgets.