Exploring Problematic Mobile Phone Use: Relationships Between Adolescents' Characteristics and Mobile Phone Addiction.

This study examines if adolescents' background characteristics including personality and interpersonal relationship are related to their addictive behaviors to mobile phone use. Using survey data of middle- and high school students in South Korea (n = 400), we find positive relationships between the level of mobile phone addiction and adolescents' traits such as peer imitation, loss of control, and social anxiety. In addition, the results show that the frequency of adolescents' text messaging is positively related to mobile phone addiction, while voice calling has no significant relationship with addictive behaviors. Considering these factors accounting for the variance in the level of addiction, this study suggests that interpersonal features of the mobile phone may be potentially related to over usage of the medium, particularly among adolescents who are emotionally attached to peers and are susceptible to high use and problematic use. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]