Smartphone Addiction and Mental Health Wellbeing Among Indonesian Adolescents

Introduction The development of internet technology and information and smartphone applications is progressing very rapidly. ON the other hand, accumulating evidence is indicating that excessive use of smartphone can cause mental and emotional health problems among adolescents. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between adolescent smartphone addiction and psychological and emotional health in Indonesia. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional correlational design. The study respondents were 350 adolescents aged 10-22 years and were selected through the convenience sampling method. Data were collected using the adapted and validated psychological wellbeing scale and the Smartphone addiction scale. Results: The study using Kendall's method indicated a significant correlation between the study variables (Sig. = 0.001). The correlation coefficient is -0.255, which denotes a negative, and weak to a moderate relationship. Discussion: Adolescents should exercise, attend school, and volunteer more. During unstable adolescent growth, parents must lead their children, and explain rules and conventions. Adolescents should be encouraged and directed to do more exercise, extra-school activities, and volunteer work among others. In this study it was apparent the issue of technology addiction and its possible negative effects on adolescents
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emotional and mental well-being, therefore individual, group, and community interventions and assertive behavior techniques are needed to decrease adolescent smartphone addiction. Interventions such as group mentoring, counseling, and cognitive behavioral therapy could be useful in this area.