Psychological and demographic predictors of cellular phone use of college students

Author

Crystal M. McWhirter, Coastal Carolina University
Linda J. Palm, Coastal Carolina University

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

13

Number

1

Page Numbers

pages 16-25

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

2007

Abstract

The present study examined psychological and demographic predictors of cellular phone use of college students. The participants were 158 undergraduate students enrolled at a public university in the Southeastern United States. Each participant reported demographic information and completed the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory, the Trait Scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Cellular Telephone Inventory. Participants' responses to the Cellular Telephone Inventory produced four measures of cellular phone use: daily phone use in minutes, instrumental use, emotional/social use, and problematic use. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the degree to which a set of six predictor variables (self-esteem, trait anxiety, gender, age, class rank, and mileage from hometown) predicted each of the cellular phone use measures. The predictor variables accounted for 6% of the variance in daily phone use scores, 12% of the variance in the instrumental use scores, 26% of the variance in the emotional/social use scores, and 8% of the variance in the problematic use scores. The psychological variables of self-esteem and trait anxiety did not make a significant contribution to the prediction of any of the four cellular use measures; however, several demographic variables were significant predictors. Suggestions for future research on cellular phone use in the college population are discussed.

Subject

Psychology

Discipline

Psychology

Document Type

article

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

10 leaves

Language

English

Call Number

BF1 .M63 v. 13 no. 1 2007

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Recommended Citation

McWhirter, Crystal M. and Palm, Linda J. (2007) "Psychological and demographic predictors of cellular phone use of college students," Modern Psychological Studies: Vol. 13: No. 1, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholar.utc.edu/mps/vol13/iss1/3