Stress, loneliness and peer attachment as predictors of smartphone addiction among university students in Malaysia

• Main Authors: Ng, Yan Yi, Yap, Phei Yi
• Format: Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: BF Psychology; H Social Sciences (General); HT Communities. Classes. Races; Q Science (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utar.edu.my/6471/1/2002987_FYP.pdf; http://eprints.utar.edu.my/6471/
• Institution: Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

The present study was conducted to examine stress, loneliness, and peer attachment as predictors of smartphone addiction among university students in Malaysia. This study implemented a quantitative analysis research method and a purposive sampling method. The minimum sample size required for this study is 119 participants. Eventually, data from 126 university students aged 20 to 25 were used after data collection and cleaning. The survey was distributed to university students from different states in Malaysia through online platforms. Also, physical recruitment efforts were undertaken at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), encouraging recruited participants to share the survey link or poster with others. Qualtrics was utilised to create the survey, and IBM SPSS version 26 was used to analyse the data. The instruments include Socio-Demographic, College Student Stress Scale (CSSS), The 6-item De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (6-Item (short) DJGLS), Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment - Revised (IPPA-R) and The Smartphone Addiction Scale – Short Version (SAS-SV) were used. Compensatory Internet Use Theory was used to explain the prediction relationship of all variables towards smartphone addiction. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the predictors of smartphone addiction. The result showed that loneliness and peer attachment positively predict smartphone addiction, while stress was not significant in predicting smartphone addiction. The present study was expected to contribute to updating the psychology research database of stress, loneliness and peer attachment as predictors of smartphone addiction among university students in Malaysia.