A new study indicates that adolescents who are addicted to smartphones have more suicidal thoughts. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan.18 (Korea Bizwire) – A new study indicates that adolescents who are addicted to smartphones have more suicidal thoughts.
Research on the relationship between smartphone addiction and depression among adolescents has been conducted in the past, but the new study marks the first time that smartphone addiction has been tied to suicidal thoughts.
Professor Kim Jae-yub from the Social Welfare and Research Institute at Yonsei University and researcher Hwang Hyun-ju studied 1,601 teenagers attending middle school and high school in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. They announced that their analysis showed that smartphone addiction directly influenced suicidal thoughts.
Smartphone addiction also cast a larger influence on suicidal thoughts compared to gender, type of household, and economic status. In other words, female students rather than male students, children of single parent households or those who had no parents at all, and students from households of lower economic status had a tendency to have suicidal thoughts, but adolescents who were addicted to smartphones turned out to think even more about suicide.
Smartphone addiction was also reported to influence adolescents’ self-control.
Students who were addicted to smartphones answered ‘yes’ to statements such as ‘I have difficulties quitting a bad habit’, ‘I sometimes don’t finish my duties when I am occupied with something entertaining’, and ‘I am lazy’, showing that they have difficulties controlling their habits or actions.
The research team also proved that a weakening of self-control due to smartphone addiction influences suicidal thoughts. Adolescents who had a higher tendency to be addicted to smartphones lost self-control more easily, and in those cases, had a higher risk of having suicidal thoughts.
In the meantime, 40.4 percent of the respondents (643 students) answered that they have thought about or attempted suicide at least once during the past year. The rate of female students was higher (50.7 percent) compared to male students (33.3 percent).
Researcher Hwang commented that there is a need to intervene with adolescents who lose self-control by using smartphones addictively, saying, “They should learn the proper way to use a smartphone, and programs to prevent suicide should be offered at schools.”
She added that female students had a higher tendency to have suicidal thoughts compared to male students, and also a higher level of addiction to smartphones. She emphasized that programs should be designed based on gender differences considering that female students are more sensitive than male students.
By Francine Jung (francine.jung@kobizmedia.co.kr)
