INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SMARTPHONE ADDICTION AND LONELINESS WITH THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ALEXITHYMIA AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background and Aim : The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between smartphone addiction and loneliness with the mediating role of alexithymia among university students of Islamic Azad University, Shabestar Branch. The statistical population of this study included 1650 students, 315 of whom were selected according to Krejcie and Morgan Table (1972) using simple random sampling.Methods : To measure the data, Hyun Young Koo’s Smartphone Addiction Scale (2009), UCLA Loneliness Scale versoin3 and Toronto Alexithymia Scale were used. The reliability of the questionnaires was measured using the Cronbach s alpha coefficient, the results of which for smartphone addiction, loneliness, and alexithymia were 0.812, 0.761 and 0.863, respectively. This indicates the high reliability of the questionnaires. Structural modeling using LaserLevel software was used to analyze the data. Structural modeling using LISREL was used to analyze the data. Results : . According to the results of the structural model test, there is a positive relationship between addiction to smartphone and loneliness (path coefficient, 0.69) and it is significant (significance level, 6.45). The path coefficient and significance values for the relationship between addiction to smartphone and alexithymia were -0.46 and -8.45, respectively. For the relationship between loneliness and alexithymia, -0.54 and -7.46 were obtained, respectively. Conclusion : This indicates that smartphone addiction increases loneliness among students, and loneliness caused by smartphone addiction also increases the amount of alexithymia among students

کلیدواژه ها:

smartphone addiction ، loneliness ، alexithymia ، university students