engleski

Phubbing among Croatian students

Background and aims: Phubbing is an emerging social phenomenon defined as looking at a smartphone during a face-to- face conversation. Phubbing is a global trend, but since it was acknowledged only several years ago, still little is known about its association with other Internet-related behaviors and well-being. This study is part of an ongoing international study on phubbing “A phubbing phenomenon – its predictors and consequences in a cross-cultural perspective” that is currently being conducted in thirty countries worldwide. Methods: The research was conducted on 688 students, using e-questionnaires. To survey “technology-related-habits”, we employed The Phubbing Scale, Adapted Mobile Phone Use Habits, The Internet Addiction Scale, and assessed the number of hours the participants spent online. To assess “well-being”, we applied one item measures of life satisfaction and overall happiness, The Flourishing Scale and the K6- quantifier of non-specific psychological distress. “Self-control” was measured using the Brief Self-Control Scale. Results: Although the students spent over 9 hours per day logged on to the Internet, phubbing, mobile phone habits, and Internet addiction were low to moderate. Women were more likely to phub and reported more mobile phone-related habits, but men spent more hours per day logged on to the Internet and reported a higher Internet addiction. We explained 50% of the variance of phubbing in the female and 54% of the variance of phubbing in the male sample. Mobile phone use habits were the strongest predictor of phubbing in both samples. In the male sample, self-control contributed to the explanation of the variance of phubbing, while among the women, Internet addiction, the amount of time spent online during the weekends, and nonspecific psychological distress contributed to the explanation of the variance of phubbing. Conclusion: This research was the first to investigate the phubbing phenomenon in Croatia. It contributed to further studies by providing a Croatian adaptation of the questionnaire and set basic standards and reference points for further research of the phenomenon in Croatia.

Phubbing, Well-being, Face-to-face communication, Mobile phones, Internet addiction

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