Psychiatria Danubina, Vol. 34 No. 4, 2022.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2022.653
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDHOOD PHYSICAL ABUSE, NEGLECT AND ALEXITHYMIA AND MOBILE PHONE ADDICTION IN ADOLESCENTS
Houyang Du Du
; Law School of Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434023, China
Abstract
Background: The popularity of smart phones not only brings great convenience to people’s lives, but also makes people more
dependent on them. This study aims to explore the causes of mobile phone addiction in adolescents and clarify its correlation with
childhood abuse, neglect, and alexithymia.
Subjects and methods: A total of 684 middle school students from Jingzhou City in China were selected as research participants
to investigate the degree of childhood psychological abuse, neglect and alexithymia by using the “Child Psychological Abuse and
Neglect Scale (CPANS),” “Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS),” and “Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)”. According
to survey results of mobile phone addiction, they were divided into the tendency group and the control group.
Results: Students in the tendency group have shown higher scores in the dimensions of psychological abuse (scolding,
intimidation and interference), neglect (emotional, education, physical/supervisory), compared to the control group. The total scores
of psychological abuse and neglect were positively related to the total score of mobile phone addiction tendency. Students in the
tendency group have shown higher scores in emotion identification difficulty, emotion description difficulty, extroversion thinking,
and total scores of alexithymia than those of control group. The total score of alexithymia was positively related to the total score of
mobile phone addiction tendency. Regression analysis has shown that childhood psychological abuse and neglect could significantly
predict the mobile phone addiction status in students. Alexithymia could also significantly predict the mobile phone addiction status
among the student sample.
Conclusion: Childhood abuse, neglect, and alexithymia were positively related to mobile phone addiction, and all of them had a
significant regression-based predictive role regarding the mobile phone addiction in adolescents.
Keywords
alexithymia; psychological abuse; neglect; mobile phone addiction; adolescents
Hrčak ID:
291051
URI
Publication date:
22.12.2022.
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