International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Cyprien Nkoma, Elijah Macharia Ndungú, PhD, Maria Ntarangwe, PhD
Department of Psychology
The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract: The use of mobile phones among secondary school students is of concern when looking at the increase of violent behaviors in schools. The mobile phone use and the psychological wellbeing of secondary school students has become an issue of interest for research. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between the time spent on mobile phone use and the psychological wellbeing of secondary school students in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study used an embedded mixed method research design. A Multistage sampling method was employed in selecting the 7 schools, and the sample size of 357 respondents. Data was collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficients was used for data analysis. The main findings of this study showed a strong positive correlation between time spent on the use of mobile phones and the psychological wellbeing of secondary school students (0.885). The study also found out that there was a strong positive correlation between time spent on the mobile phones and the aspect of personal growth (0.985) and the self-acceptance (0.980). There was a moderate positive correlation between time spent on the use of mobile phones and the environmental mastery (0.60), the purpose in life (0.528) and the positive relations with others (0.457). There was a weak positive correlation between time spent on the use of mobile phones and the autonomy (0.004). The study recommends that the school administration should establish counselling facilities which can address the issues related to mobile phones use among secondary school students.
I.INTRODUCTION
Mobile phones have brought a lot of improvement and easiness in the way human beings are communicating across the world. It offers enormous opportunities in terms of communication. It also provides quick accessibility to many applications while connected to the internet. Smartphones are defined as devices with advanced features that goes beyond the traditional functions of phones such as making calls and sending text messages but have higher capabilities of playing videos, surfing the web, sending and receiving emails, taking photos and editing them with embellishment, social interactions through chat groups and also enabling business transactions (Ogushi et al., 2019).
The mobile phone penetration has increased in many countries across the globe. Studies are reporting that the number of youngsters using the mobile phones has equally increased. The use of mobile phones among adolescents is becoming a rampant phenomenon which is experienced in