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. 2020 Jan 16;17(2):580.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17020580.

Nomophobia: An Individual's Growing Fear of Being without a Smartphone-A Systematic Literature Review

Antonio-Manuel Rodríguez-García  1 , Antonio-José Moreno-Guerrero  1 , Jesús López Belmonte  1
Affiliations

Nomophobia: An Individual's Growing Fear of Being without a Smartphone-A Systematic Literature Review

Antonio-Manuel Rodríguez-García et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This review examines the current literature focused on nomophobia (objectives, methodological design, main variables, sample details, and measurement methods) in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. To this end, we conducted a systematic literature review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) guidelines. The initial sample consisted of 142 articles, of which 42 met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in detail. The findings show that the current research is in an exploratory phase, with a greater predominance of descriptive, nonexperimental, and cross-sectional studies that explore the prevalence of nomophobia mainly in adolescents and university students. The most widely used measurement instrument is the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q) proposed by Yildrim and Correia. In addition, the research suggests that nomophobia negatively affects personality, self-esteem, anxiety, stress, academic performance, and other physical and mental health problems. We are therefore faced with a health problem, which negatively affects a person, causing psychological problems and physical and behavioral changes.

Keywords: nomophobia; situational phobia; smartphones; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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