Problematic Mobile Phone Use by Hong Kong Adolescents

Background Recently there have been growing concerns about problematic mobile phone use by adolescent populations. This study aimed to address this concern through a study of severity and correlates of problematic mobile phone use with a sample of Hong Kong adolescents. Methods Data were collected from a sample of adolescents from three local secondary schools (ranging from high to low academic achievement levels) using a measuring scale (PCPU-Q, Yen et al., 2009) designated for Chinese adolescents. Participants were allocated into groups of “problematic users” and “non-problematic users” based on the number of occurrence of symptoms due to excessive and maladaptive use of mobile phone and possible functional impairments caused by problematic mobile phone use. A group of “at-risk users” was identified. A sample-based examination on distribution of these three groups of users was conducted via frequency counts and percentage calculation. A series of t-test were performed to make comparisons between “problematic” and “non-problematic” groups on selected personality and health related variable. Risk and protective factors were identified via correlational analysis and logistic regression analysis. Results Under a more stringent cut-off criterion of four or more reported symptoms (out of seven) plus one or more reported functional impairments (out of five), 22.9% of the adolescents participating in this study could be classified as problematic mobile phone users. However, a more lenient criterion (only 4 or more reported symptoms without consideration of functional impairment) reported a substantially more severe prevalence rate (29.3%). A new group of “at-risk” adolescents (6.4%) was identified with such a discrepancy of prevalence rate. Gender difference, some risk and protective factors were also identified for developing this technology-related problem. Discussion and Conclusions Adolescents who are vulnerable to suffer from this technology-related problem deserve more attention from helping professionals. Results of this study throw some insights on how to identify problematic mobile phone user applying a criterion-referenced approach. This study echoes a recent call for adopting a developmental perspective in understanding this problem and conducting research in this area. Anchored on present findings, effective interventions to tackle this rising problem among adolescents are suggested.