Frontiers in Psychology (Dec 2021)
Country Indicators Moderating the Relationship Between Phubbing and Psychological Distress: A Study in 20 Countries
- Agata Błachnio,
- Aneta Przepiórka,
- Oleg Gorbaniuk,
- Monika McNeill,
- Rebecca Bendayan,
- Rebecca Bendayan,
- Mithat Durak,
- Emre Senol-Durak,
- Menachem Ben-Ezra,
- Martina Benvenuti,
- Alan Angeluci,
- Ana Maria Abreu,
- Meiko Makita,
- María J. Blanca,
- Tihana Brkljacic,
- Nenad Č. Babič,
- Julia Gorbaniuk,
- Juraj Holdoš,
- Ana Ivanova,
- Sadia Malik,
- Anita Milanovic,
- Bojan Musil,
- Igor Pantic,
- Belén Rando,
- Gwendolyn Seidman,
- Lancy D’Souza,
- Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele,
- Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele,
- Mariusz Wołońciej,
- Anise M. S. Wu,
- Shu Yu,
- Elvis Mazzoni
Affiliations
- Agata Błachnio
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Aneta Przepiórka
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Oleg Gorbaniuk
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Monika McNeill
- Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Rebecca Bendayan
- Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom
- Rebecca Bendayan
- Department of Psychobiology and Methodology for Behavioral Sciences, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
- Mithat Durak
- Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, Turkey
- Emre Senol-Durak
- Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, Turkey
- Menachem Ben-Ezra
- Ariel University, Ariel, Israel
- Martina Benvenuti
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Alan Angeluci
- Universidade Municipal de São Caetano do Sul, São Caetano do Sul, Brazil
- Ana Maria Abreu
- Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health, Institute of Health Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal
- Meiko Makita
- 0University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
- María J. Blanca
- Department of Psychobiology and Methodology for Behavioral Sciences, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain
- Tihana Brkljacic
- 1Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
- Nenad Č. Babič
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
- Julia Gorbaniuk
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Juraj Holdoš
- 3Catholic University in Ružomberok, Ružomberok, Slovakia
- Ana Ivanova
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Sadia Malik
- 4Department of Psychology, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
- Anita Milanovic
- 5Clinic for Mental Disorders “Dr Laza Lazarević”, Belgrade, Serbia
- Bojan Musil
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Maribor, Maribor, Slovenia
- Igor Pantic
- 6Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
- Belén Rando
- 7Institute of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
- Gwendolyn Seidman
- 8Albright College, Reading, PA, United States
- Lancy D’Souza
- 9Faculty of Medicine, University of Mysore, Mysore, India
- Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele
- 0Department of Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands
- Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele
- 1Imec-mict-UGent, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Mariusz Wołońciej
- Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
- Anise M. S. Wu
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, China
- Shu Yu
- 2Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Taipa, China
- Elvis Mazzoni
- Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.588174
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 12
Abstract
Problematic mobile phone use can be related to negative mental states. Some studies indicate that behavioural dependency is related to variables associated with the country of origin. The aim of our study was to investigate if country indicators moderated the relationship between phubbing and psychological distress. Our sample consisted of 7,315 individuals from 20 countries, who completed the Phubbing Scale and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6). The analyses also included country indicators: the Gender Gap Index (GGI), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Social Progress Index (SPI), Hofstede’s dimensions of culture, and the World Happiness Index (WHI). Our results showed that psychological distress was related to at least one dimension of phubbing (i.e., to communication disturbance or phone obsession) in all countries, which means this relationship is culturally universal. The results of the study demonstrate the importance of testing measurement invariance to determine what type of analysis and what type of conclusion are valid in a given study or comparison. Moreover, the increasing or decreasing correlation between phubbing and distress is related to some culture-level indices.
Keywords
