A Comparative Study on the Problematic Use of Mobile Phones and its Negative Consequences Among Students in Selected Urban and Rural Schools, Hoshiarpur, Punjab Banga Valjit1,*, Ramanjit2,**, Garg Archana3,***, Satyajit4,**** 1Lecturer, Psychiatric (Mental Health) Nuring, Shri Guru Ram Dass College of Nuring, Hoshiarpur-146001 2Associate Professor, Psychiatric (Mental Health) Nuring, Shri Guru Ram Dass College of Nuring, Hoshiarpur 3Vice-Principal cum Professor, Shri Guru Ram Dass College of Nuring, Hoshiarpur-146001 4Assistant professor, Shri Guru Ram Dass College of Nuring, Hoshiarpur-146001 *Corresponding Author E-mail: valjitbanga@gmail.com,
**ramanrank1@yahoo.co.in
***archnagarg66@yahoo.com
****ghai30@yahoo.com
Online published on 24 May, 2018. Abstract Background Mobile phones are one of the most common information access devices with almost 31% of the global population having access. Cell phones have grown at an unprecedented rate in the Indian subcontinent in the past few years. Over the last year, cell phone subscriptions have grown almost 50% from 261 million to 506 million. Mobile phones came to India in the mind-1990s. 70% of urban youth owned a mobile and use it mainly for communicating with family and friends and as personal entertainment devices. Problematic use of mobile phonesis an abnormal, but relatively widespread form of consumer consumption which has range of negative social and financial consequences. Objective The purpose of the study is to assess and compare the problematic use of mobile phone and its negative consequences among students in selected urban and rural schools. Materials and methods The type of research is Quantitative research Non-Experimental approach i.e. comparative descriptive research design was used. The sample of 80 students having mobile phones from a selected school of district Hoshiarpur, Punjab was taken with purposive sampling technique. The modified standardized problematic use of mobile phone (PUMP) rating scale and a modified scale for negative consequences was administered to the students to collect data. The comparison between urban and rural problematic mobile phone use mean score and negative consequences mean scores was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results The results revealed that majority of students i.e. 30(75%) in rural area had moderate level of problematic use of mobile phones. In urban area more than half of the students 23(57.5%) had moderate level of problematic use of mobile phones in rural area from the sample of 40 students half of the students 20(50%) were having mild level of negative consequences due to their mobile phone usage in urban area maximum number of the students i.e. 30(75%) have mild level of negative consequences due to their problematic mobile phone usage while 2(5%) students have severe level of negative consequences due to their problematic mobile phone usage. Top Keywords Mobile phone, problematic use, negative consequences, school children. Top |