Smartphone Addiction Among Undergraduate Students: Roles of Coping Skills, Psychological Resilience, and Personality Traits – A Narrative Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18103442Keywords:
Coping Skills, Personality Traits, Psychological Resilience, Smartphones Addiction, Undergraduate StudentsAbstract
Smartphone addiction has become an increasing behavioural issue in undergraduate students with serious consequences for mental health, academic performance, sleep quality and social relationships. Excessive and uncontrolled smartphone use has been linked to psychological distress such as anxiety, depression, stress and impaired self-regulation. This narrative review summarizes the current literature related to the correlations of smartphone addiction, coping skills, psychological resilience, and personality characteristics among undergraduate students. Evidence has been consistent that maladaptive coping strategies such as avoidance and emotional disengagement is positively related to problematic smartphone use whereas adaptive coping mechanisms have a protective role. Psychological resilience plays a vital role as a buffer against the negative mental health impacts of smartphone addiction and being less likely to become addicted to them. Personality traits, specifically, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness have been shown to be significant predictors of smartphone addiction, and they affect both the patterns of use and susceptibility to psychological distress. Collectively, the reviewed studies point to smartphone addiction as a multifactorial phenomenon that is influenced by an individual's psychological characteristics. Understanding the interplay of coping styles, resilience, and personality traits is critical to developing successful prevention and treatment strategies that target the promotion of healthier digital behaviors in undergraduate students.
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