FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH SMARTPHONE USE AND ADDICTION AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study aims to determine the smart phone use and addiction levels of secondary school students from 5th and 6th grades and reveal the demographic variables concerning their addiction levels. In this study that was conducted with 156 students from 5th and 6th grades in the spring term of the school year of 2015-2016; the data were collected via “Personal Information Form” and “Smart Phone Addiction Scale (SPAS)”. Relational screening model was used in the study. Almost half of students that participated in the study use smart phones for less than an hour every day and one third of them check their smart phones every 2-3 hours. Considering the actions taken by students on their smart phones; it is observed that they mainly “play games”. According to the scores obtained from the Smart Phone Addiction Scale, more than half of students are involved in the group “Addiction Tendency”. Regarding the Smart Phone Addiction Scale, a significant difference was determined in the groups of “gender, duration of using internet, duration of using smart phones a day, frequency of checking smart phones, frequency of accessing/checking social media environments via smart phones”. The total percentage of accurately classifying the discriminant function was determined as 63,7%. As a result of the study, it was determined that the variable of “frequency of accessing/checking social media environments via smart phones” classified students displaying and not displaying addiction the best. Basic result of this study is that there is a distinct difference between the smart phone addiction levels of female and male students. In this context, it is recommended to examine the reasons of this difference and compare the results with relevant studies being conducted in other countries