Development of a Cell Phone Addiction Scale for Korean Adolescents

Koo, Hyun Young

doi:10.4040/jkan.2009.39.6.818

J Korean Acad Nurs. 2009 Dec;39(6):818-828. Korean.
Published online Dec 31, 2009.
https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2009.39.6.818

Original Article

Development of a Cell Phone Addiction Scale for Korean Adolescents

Hyun Young Koo

Author information

Author notes

Copyright and License

- Associate Professor, College of Nursing, Catholic University of Daegu, Daegu, Korea.
Address reprint requests to: Koo, Hyun Young. College of Nursing, Catholic University of Daegu, 3056-6 Daemyeong 4-dong, Nam-gu, Daegu 705-718, Korea. Tel: 82-53-650-4829, Fax: 82-53-650-4392, Email: hykoo@cu.ac.kr

Received April 21, 2009; Accepted November 13, 2009.

Abstract

Purpose

This study was done to develop a cell phone addiction scale for Korean adolescents.

Methods

The process included construction of a conceptual framework, generation of initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, preliminary study, and extraction of final items. The participants were 577 adolescents in two middle schools and three high schools. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion related validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data.

Results

Twenty items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 3 factors explaining 55.45% of total variance. The factors were labeled as withdrawal/tolerance (7 items), life dysfunction (6 items), and compulsion/persistence (7 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with self-control, impulsiveness, and cell phone use. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 20 items was .92. Scale scores identified students as cell phone addicted, heavy users, or average users.

Conclusion

The above findings indicate that the cell phone addiction scale has good validity and reliability when used with Korean adolescents.

Keywords

Adolescent; Cell phone; Addictive behavior

Tables

Table 1
Demographic Characteristics of Participants (N=577)

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Table 2
Item Analysis (N=577)

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Table 3
Factor Analysis (N=577)

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Table 4
Correlations of Cell Phone Addiction Scale with Self-control, Impulsiveness and Cell Phone Use (N=577)

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Table 5
Classification of Cell Phone Addiction in Adolescents (N=577)

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Notes

This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (KRF-2007-313-E00567).

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