부산대학교 도서관

As mobile phone use on college campuses has dramatically increased in recent years, so too have reports of mobile phone addiction amongst college students. Research on media addiction, such that of as television addiction (Mcllwraith, 1998; McIlwraith, Jacobvitz, Kubey, & Alexander, 1991; Smith, 1986) and Internet addiction (LaRose, Lin, & Eastin, 2003), among users has been abundant. However, research on mobile phone addiction hardly seems to exist. The purpose of this study is to explore gender effects of self-reported mobile phone addiction and its relationship to depression. The sample is American college students at a major university. Various theoretical frameworks of addiction were adapted from earlier studies conducted on television and Internet addiction. Five operational mobile phone addiction variables were assessed: preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, life consequences, and escapism. Five hundred and nineteen undergraduate college participants were non-randomly sampled from 3 different classes of the university. A questionnaire was distributed to the participants containing measures of mobile phone use, addiction, and depression. The results indicated that there is a pattern between mobile phone addiction and depression amongst the sample. Female participants reported significantly higher addiction effects than males. In addition, self-reported mobile phone addiction was positively associated with participants' depression.