Social Implications of Smartphone Use: Korean College Students' Smartphone Use and Psychological Well-Being

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between motives of smartphone use, social relation, and psychological well-being. The correlation analysis shows that the motives of smartphone use were positively related to bonding relations but negatively related to bridging relations. The hierarchical multiple regression analysis finds the associations among motives of smartphone use, social relations, perceived social support, and variables of psychological well-being. The results demonstrate that needs for caring for others were negatively related to loneliness and depression and positively related to self-esteem. However, the communication motives are not a significant predictor to determine self-esteem, loneliness, and depression. In addition, bonding and bridging social relations and social support significantly increase self-esteem and decrease loneliness and depression.

Introduction

Nielson Korea recently reported that 58 percent of Korean adults owned smartphones, and 84 percent of the college students in Korea used smartphones in 2011.¹ With the increasing penetration rates, social and academic interest has been directed toward the social impacts of smartphones, particularly in relation to well-being and daily social interactions with people.^2–4 However, a few studies have examined what drives smartphone use and how technology use influences the well-being outcomes. The present study aims at providing theoretical and empirical knowledge that is needed to guide researchers in examining the social impacts of smartphone use. In particular, this study focuses on college students' psychological well-being and social interactions that can be elucidated from smartphone use. A body of literature suggests that college students often experience depression, loneliness, and loss of self-esteem, because they are vulnerable to stressful life events on campus.⁵ Researchers have found that good relationships with their friends and families and social supports can alleviate the negative emotional states.^6–8 Since communication for maintaining relationships is recognized as one of the primary reasons for using a smartphone,⁹ the device might be linked to the psychological well-being of students.

The existing literature also provides some support for this view. Previous studies^10–12 showed that communication technologies support the maintenance of social ties, and they influence emotional states, including loneliness, depression, self-esteem, and social support benefit.^3,6,13 Given the growing concerns over the psychological well-being of individuals in Korea and around the world, researchers have been motivated to examine the associations between media use, social relationships, and well-being.^3,14 The significance of this study lies in its expansion of the scope of the literature that examines technology use and well-being.

To examine the relationships between smartphone use and well-being, the present study begins by identifying the needs of a college student that are satisfied by a smartphone. One way to explore the needs is to apply uses and gratifications theory (U&G). U&G suggests that an individual's underlying needs motivate his/her media use.¹⁵ This approach can serve to identify the motives that stimulate diverse activities related to smartphone use. Furthermore, it is useful to highlight specific needs that are linked to the symptoms of well-being. Therefore, we have constructed research question 1 (RQ1) as follows:

RQ1: What needs motivate college students to use smartphones?

Although individuals fulfill their different needs by using smartphones, specific gratification obtained from the technology might bring different social outcomes. Previous studies showed that the positive social consequences of the media such as community enhancement or increased social contacts are driven by social needs rather than entertainment-oriented or information-related motivations.^16,17 Thus, it would be noteworthy to examine how smartphone users' specific needs lead to relational maintenance and emotional exchange, which is closely connected to many dimensions of well-being.

RQ2: How are college students' motives of smartphone use related to social relations and social support?

In order to explore the determinants of college students' psychological well-being, this study controls users' gender and extroversion as a personality trait. Previous studies have demonstrated gender-based differences in self-esteem,¹⁸ loneliness, and depression.¹⁹ Another study has shown that an extraverted personality mediates the relationship between media use and emotional health.¹³ Wolfradt and Doll²⁰ found that personality traits influence the motives of media use.

RQ3: What are the predictors of college students' self-esteem, loneliness, and depressive symptoms after controlling for gender and extroversion personality?

Methodology

An online survey was conducted across several universities near the metropolitan areas in Korea. A total of 339 respondents participated in the survey, and data from 279 students were used for analysis (97 men and 182 women). The age of respondents ranged from 18 to 28 years. (M=22.26; SD=0.48). All of the participants owned and used smartphones regularly. The functions of the smartphones that the respondents preferred were diverse, ranging from voice call or text to information search or chatting (Table 1). In order to measure extroversion personality, we used Bending's scale.^21. The scale has been widely used in previous studies and showed a high internal consistency of 0.88.²² In the current study, the alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.90.

Table 1.

Descriptives of Smartphone Users

Items	n (%)	M	SD
Gender
Female	182 (65.2%)
Male	97 (34.8%)
Age		22.26	2.01
Duration time
Less than 1 months	7 (2.5%)
1–3 months	23 (8.2%)
3–6 months	66 (23.7%)
6–9 months	54 (19.4%)
9–12 months	61 (21.9%)
1–2 years	56 (20.1%)
More than 2 years	9 (3.2%)
Activities on Smartphone
Voice call	94 (33.7%)
Short message service	45 (16.1%)
Instant messaging	68 (24.5%)
Camera	73 (26.2%)
Multimedia (DMB, MP3, Video)	69 (24.7%)
Game	33 (11.8%)
Club/blog	33 (11.8%)
SNS (Twitter, Facebook)	125 (44.8%)
Chatting (Kakao Talk)	199 (71.3%)
Applications	79 (28.3%)
Internet surfing/search	116 (41.6%)
Psychology
Perceived social support		5.30	1.22
Loneliness		4.89	0.76
Depressive symptoms		4.58	0.69
Self-esteem		4.84	0.90

Motives of smartphone use were determined by asking respondents how well each of the statements corresponded to their own motive of smartphone use (1=not at all; 5=exactly). Twenty-one items were borrowed from Leung and Wei's²³ mobile phone motives and Kim and Haridakis's Internet motives.²⁴ Both measures were based on the media-use motive scales that had been validated in previous studies.^23,24 Since the measures were borrowed from different media-use motive scales, principle components were analyzed by factor analysis with varimax rotation to uncover any possible underlying component structure.

Social relationships were measured with Boase and Kobayashi's²⁵ items that asked respondents to indicate their level of agreements on the statements. The statements were about the relationship between the functions of cellular phones and social ties. For the current study, the phrase “cellular phone” was substituted with “smartphone.” Nine items were divided into two factors and were summed and averaged to create two different types of social relationships mediated through smartphones: bonding and bridging. In an earlier study, the measurements showed good reliability with a Chronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.74 for bonding and 0.62 for bridging relations.²⁵ In the present study, the measurements showed good internal consistency, with alpha coefficients of 0.86 and 0.85, respectively. Perceived social support was measured with Zimet et al.'s²⁶ social support scale. The scale had acceptable reliabilities that ranged from 0.89 to 0.93.²⁷ In the current study, the Chronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.95.

Self-esteem was assessed using Rosenberg's²⁸ 10 statements related to overall feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance. The scale was generally highly reliable, with test-retest correlation values between 0.82 and 0.88.²⁹ The Chronbach's alpha of the scale in the present study was 0.83. The revised UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) loneliness scale³⁰ was used to measure college students' level of loneliness. The scale has adequate psychometric properties, has been extensively validated, and shows high internal consistency with an alpha coefficient of 0.94.³¹ The Chronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale in the present study was 0.87. Levels of depression were measured with the reduced version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, which consists of seven statements.³² We used it to examine the existence of the depressive symptoms among respondents. High internal consistency has been reported with Chronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.85 to 0.90 across studies.³² The alpha coefficient for the scale in the present study was 0.87.

All of the scales used in the analysis ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). All the items included in each scale are shown in Appendix Table A1.

Results

Research question 1: needs of college students motivating smartphone use

Principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to answer RQ1. Six needs for using smartphones were revealed. Caring for others (7.45) was the first factor among the six factors that constituted the needs, which was followed by the trend (2.54); communication (1.90); information (1.74); accessibility (1.61); and pass time (1.08). A total of six factors accounted for 74.16 percent of the variance. One out of 21 statements on motivation had a factor loading of less than 0.50 and, thus, was not included in any of the factors (Table 2).

Table 2.

Motivations for Using Smartphone

	Factor loading
Items	Caring for others	Following the trend	Communication	Information	Accessibility	Pass time
To have good relationships with family	0.79	0.16	0.10	0.22	0.05	0.39
To get closer to family	0.81	0.16	0.14	0.22	0.01	0.30
To let others know you take care of them	0.75	0.21	0.18	0.03	0.35	−0.01
To feel others take care of yourselves	0.68	0.33	0.24	0.01	0.19	−0.10
To look fashionable	0.24	0.89	0.13	0.07	0.09	0.06
To look cool	0.29	0.90	0.09	0.02	0.03	0.01
To look stylish	0.20	0.92	0.11	0.08	0.06	0.02
To follow the trend	0.01	0.82	0.05	0.14	0.13	0.14
To talk with others to relieve the boredom	0.33	0.11	0.79	0.12	0.05	−0.01
To chat with others	0.13	0.14	0.88	0.07	0.14	0.19
To enjoy conversations with others	0.11	0.08	0.81	0.11	0.21	0.23
To find traffic information	0.04	0.07	−0.07	0.71	0.11	0.01
To update news	0.06	0.07	0.12	0.76	0.12	0.23
To update weather news	0.07	0.07	0.08	0.81	0.06	−0.08
To find product and entertainment news	0.20	0.07	0.35	0.64	0.07	0.08
To communicate with others anywhere	0.03	0.10	0.14	0.24	0.85	0.06
To communicate with anyone and anytime	0.13	0.07	0.12	0.13	0.87	0.14
To say hello to others	0.46	0.19	0.26	0.10	0.58	−0.07
To pass time	−0.10	0.12	0.47	0.15	0.11	0.69
To take a rest	0.38	0.15	0.18	0.08	0.04	0.73
Eigen Value	7.45	2.54	1.90	1.74	1.61	1.08
R ²	16.36	16.06	12.41	11.14	11.02	7.17
Cumulative R²	16.36	32.42	44.83	55.97	66.98	74.16

Research question 2: correlations between motives, social relations, and social support

A correlation analysis was conducted to answer RQ2 (Table 3). All the motives ranging from caring for others to passing time had significant positive associations with bonding social relationships. On the other hand, five motives, excluding information, were negatively related to bridging social relations. Four motives—communication, information, accessibility, and passing time—were positively correlated to perceived social support. As for the correlation between social relationship and perceived social support, bonding social ties were positively related to perceived social support (r=0.44, p<0.001), while bridging social ties were negatively related to perceived social support (r=−0.18, p<0.01).

Table 3.

Pearson Correlations Among Smartphone Use, Social Relations, and Social Support

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Caring for others	—
2. Following trends	0.44^***	—
3. Communication	0.42^***	0.28^***	—
4. Information	0.23^***	0.21^**	0.30^***	—
5. Accessibility	0.49^***	0.23^***	0.43^***	0.32^***	—
6. Passing time	0.32^***	0.25^***	0.50^***	0.27^***	0.27^***	—
7. Bonding	0.30^***	0.19^**	0.37^***	0.40^***	0.40^***	0.31^***	—
8. Bridging	−0.30^***	−0.19^**	−0.13^*	−0.03	−0.16^*	−0.15^*	−0.22^**	—
9. Social support	0.05	0.06	0.28^***	0.31^***	0.25^***	0.21^**	0.44^***	−0.18^**	—

p<0.05, ^**p<0.01, ^***p<0.001.

Research question 3: predictors of self-esteem, loneliness, and depression

RQ3 was answered by conducting a hierarchical regression analysis. College students' needs of caring for others (β=0.22, p<0.01) and accessibility (β=0.15, p<0.05) had a significant positive relationship to self-esteem, after controlling for gender, extroversion, social relations, and social support. Respondents who used smartphones for bonding and bridging ties as well as for sharing a sense of support were likely to show higher levels of self-esteem (Table 4). This indicates that the respondents who used smartphones to maintain higher levels of bonding and bridging relations and social support had higher self-esteem than those who had fewer relations and lesser support.

Table 4.

Regression Model: Associations Among Smartphone Use Motives, Social Relations, and Psychological Well-Being

	Self-esteem		Loneliness		Depression
	β	t	β	t	β	t
Gender	0.14	2.20^*	0.08	1.33	0.01	0.19
Extroversion	0.24	3.90^***	−0.41	−6.88^***	−0.28	−4.42^***
R ²	0.08		0.17		0.08
Bonding relations	0.13	1.91^#	−0.24	−4.61^***	−0.14	−1.97^#
Bridging relations	0.19	2.99^**	−0.03	−0.48	−0.29	−4.50^***
Social support	0.41	5.58^***	−0.63	−10.28^***	−0.32	−4.21^***
R² change	0.19		0.34		0.17
Caring for others	0.22	2.89^**	−0.18	−2.99^**	−0.13	−1.67^#
Following trends	0.03	0.50	−0.02	−0.40	−0.04	−0.56
Communication	0.03	0.40	−0.01	−0.24	−0.01	−0.16
Information	0.02	0.36	−0.04	−0.77	−0.05	−0.79
Accessibility	0.15	2.17^*	−0.17	−2.96^**	−0.03	−0.43
Passing time	0.10	1.53	−0.01	−0.14	−0.00	−0.05
R² change	0.05		0.03		0.02
Total R²	0.31		0.54		0.27

p<0.10, ^*p<0.05, ^**p<0.01, ^***p<0.001.

College students' needs of caring for others (β=−0.18, p<0.01) and accessibility (β=0.17, p<0.01) had significant negative associations with the level of loneliness, after controlling for gender, extroversion, social relations, and social support. In addition, social relations and support were significantly found to be key determinants, which explained the variance of loneliness, indicating the R² change of the 34 percent. Bonding relation and social support were strongly and negatively related to the level of loneliness. This suggests that higher levels of bonding relations and social support were predictors of lower levels of loneliness for college students. On the other hand, bridging relations had no significant relations with loneliness.

With regard to the association between motives of smartphone use and levels of depression, caring for others had a negative relation (β=−0.13, p<0.10), after controlling for gender, extroversion, social relations, and social support. The regression model demonstrated that social relations and support explained the greater amount of variance in depression than the motivations for smartphone use, accounting for R² change of 17 percent out of the total 27 percent. Individuals who used smartphones' functions to maintain bonding and bridging relations were more likely to have lower levels of depression. A higher level of social support was also a significant predictor of a lower level of depression among college students.

Discussion

This study aims at examining why college students use smartphones and how different needs are linked to the maintenance of social relations and psychological well-being. Specifically, with regard to RQ1, the data show that college students have diverse needs for using smartphones. Broadly, they can be grouped into six factors: caring for others, following popular trends, communication, information, accessibility, and passing time. The correlation analysis for RQ2 shows that these factors are significantly related to social relations and perceived social support. The investigation of RQ2 highlights the fact that motives for smartphone use have different links to bonding and bridging relations. The motives of smartphone use are positively related to bonding relations but negatively related to bridging relations. These findings suggest that smartphones are similar to traditional mobile phones in preserving close social ties.³³ This suggests that college students enhance bonding relations via smartphone communication rather than forge bridging relations with distant others and strangers.

The purpose of this study is to explore the links between smartphone use and psychological well-being. Scholars have addressed the importance of examining the social impacts of technology use on well-being among college students and young adults,² and this study contributes considerably to this research area. The results of RQ3 show that individuals who use smartphones to fulfill their caring motive are likely to show lower levels of loneliness and depression and maintain greater self-esteem, although the communication needs are not a significant factor for determining those three variables. This result can be possibly explained by the difference between the sub-items of the questionnaires of communication and caring for others. The questions that measure the caring-for-others motive were constructed to understand the maintenance of supportive relations with others. On the other hand, the questions for communication needs included chatting and passing time. The results would have been different if the questions to measure communications were substantial.

Another contribution of this study lies in its elucidation of the significant relations between supportive relationships and smartphone use for psychological well-being. Taken together with the findings related to the associations between the motives of smartphone use, social relations, social support, and psychological well-being, this research suggests that smartphone use for the purpose of supportive communications contributes to strengthening social ties and improving college students' psychological well-being. Recently, the incidence of suicides among college students has been discussed as an important public mental health issue in the United States and Korea.^34,35 The current study implies that smartphone communications can be used to alleviate stressful life events such as a suicide. A smartphone can serve as a platform through which students can socialize with others, thus contributing to improving emotional and psychological well-being.

Given the nature of the survey sample used in this study, we cannot generalize the findings to all college students. However, this study can be viewed as a case study that provides preliminary information about students' smartphone use, the resulting gratifications, and its consequences on their social life. Future research could explore smartphone use in other contexts and diverse communities. Another limitation is that the present study lacks a description of unique functions and use of smartphones. However, the study still holds significance, as it addresses the needs of smartphone use that influence college students' mental health. In fact, it would be valuable to identify the specific usage of smartphones in future research.

Finally, future research needs to explain the complex relationships between the variables and to identify the possible pathways from smartphone use to individuals' psychological well-being. As shown in previous studies,⁹ the current study shows that more extravert smartphone users are likely to have more psychological benefits than the less extravert users. These findings indicate that individuals' extravert traits may mediate relationships between smartphone use and social relations. Future research should build on the current study by investigating the relative influence of personality, social relations, social support, and psychological well-being with higher statistical methods such as path analysis or a structural equation model.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Appendix

Appendix Table A1.

The Scale and Items Used in This Study

Smartphone Use Motive Scale

1. To see traffic information

2. To keep up to date with social events

3. To check news headlines and weather updates

4. To find out consumer and entertainment information

5. To relieve boredom by calling people

6. To gossip or chat

7. To enjoy the pleasure of talking to people

8. To pass time

9. To relax

10. To improve relations with family

11. To feel closer to family members

12. To let others know you care for them

13. To get a feeling that people care about you

14. To say hi to people who care about you

15. To look fashionable

16. To look cool

17. To look stylish

18. To avoid looking old fashioned

19. To provide immediate access to others

20. To be always accessible to anyone no matter where you are

21. To be available to the ill or aged members of the family

Presumed Smartphone Function for Social Relationships: Smartphone has…

1. allowed you to have stronger relationships with your close friends

2. allowed you to feel that your friends were near you

3. made your family stop worrying about you

4. allowed you to keep in touch with newly met people

5. increased your friends outside of school

6. decreased your relationships with friends to whom you are not very close

7. decreased the necessity of having relationships with friends who you do not get along with

8. decreased your chances of meeting with a large group during holidays

9. increased change of gathering only with close friends

Perceived Social Support Scale

1. I have a special person who is a real source of comfort to me

2. My friends really try to help me

3. I can count on my friends when things go wrong

4. I can talk about my problems with my family

5. I have friends with whom I can share my joys and sorrows

6. There is a special person in my life who cares about my feelings

7. I can talk about my problems with my friends

Self-Esteem Scale

1. I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others

2. I feel that I have a number of good qualities

3. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure

4. I am able to do things as well as most other people

5. I feel I do not have much to be proud of

6. I take a positive attitude toward myself

7. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself

8. I wish I could have more respect for myself

9. I certainly feel useless at times

10. At times, I think I am no good at all

Loneliness Scale

1. I feel in tune with the people around me

2. I lack companionship

3. There is no one I can turn to

4. I do not feel alone

5. I feel a part of a group of friends

6. I have a lot in common with the people around me

7. I am no longer close to anyone

8. My interests and ideas are not shared by those around me

9. I am an outgoing person

10. There are people I feel close to

11. I feel left out

12. My social relationships are superficial

13. No one really knows me well

14. I feel isolated from others

15. I can find companionship when I want it

16. There are people who really understand me

17. I am unhappy being so withdrawn

18. People are around me but not with me

19. There are people I can talk to

20. There are people I can turn to

Depression Scale

1. I felt that I could not shake off the blues even with the help from my family or friends

2. I had trouble keeping my mind on what I was doing

3. I felt depressed

4. I felt everything I did was an effort

5. My sleep was restless

6. I enjoyed life

7. I felt sad

Extravert Personality Scale

1. I really enjoy talking to people

2. I like to be where the action is

3. I am a cheerful, high-spirited person

4. I like to have a lot of people around me

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