The relationship between the type of smartphone use and smartphone dependence of Korean adolescents: National survey study

The purpose of this study is to verify the relationship between the type of smartphone use and smartphone dependence. We analyzed 2212 data of middle and high school students of the survey on internet addiction by the Korea Information Society Agency in 2016. We conducted a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to examine the effects of smartphone use for information seeking, entertainment seeking, gaming, mobile SNS, and mobile instant messenger on smartphone dependence after controlling smartphone usage frequency, and smartphone usage time. As a result of the analysis, the frequency of smartphone use of weekday (p < 0.001) and weekend (p < 0.001) was related to the dependence on smartphones. In addition, the amount of smartphone use for information seeking (p < 0.01), entertainment seeking (p < 0.05), and gaming (p < 0.001) were associated with the dependence of smartphone. The amount of smartphone use for mobile SNS and mobile instant messenger are not related to smartphone dependence. The results suggest that different strategies need for the psychological intervention of smartphone dependence according to the main type of smartphone use of adolescents.