JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Information technologies have become an integral part of the modern society, however it is speculated that their overuse would result in addiction. Nomophobia refers to the irrational fear of being out of contact with the virtual communication platforms. Generally upon exposure to stress, humans adjust by employing cognitive mechanisms and behavioral efforts also known as coping strategies.

Objective:

To explore the coping styles implemented in subjects with nomophobia.

Methods:

This is a cross sectional study involving young adult participants (undergraduate students and younger subjects) that were recruited via an online survey using a snowball approach. The Italian version of the nomophobia questionnaire was administered to subjects. The measurement of coping styles was done using the 28-item Brief COPE questionnaire. Continuous data were computed as means and standard deviations, whereas categorical data were expressed as percentages, where appropriate. Correlation analysis was performed between the nomophobia questionnaire and Brief COPE scores. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted in order to shed light on the determinants of each coping style and its association with nomophobia.

Results:

A total of 403 subjects took part in the study. Subjects with higher nomophobia scores responded when confronted with stress with behavioral disengagement (r=0.163, P<.001), denial (r=0.189, P<.001), self-blame (r=0.116, P=.0198), self-distraction (r=0.215, P<.001), venting (r=0.279, P<.001), use of emotional (r= 0.245, P<.001) and instrumental support (r=0.159, P=.0014).

Conclusions:

Nomophobia subjects adopt maladaptive coping strategies when confronted with stress. The acknowledgment of how nomophobia subjects react provides insight and introduces a focus for preventative and interventional measures in this population.