The Effect of Age, Gender, and Job on Skin Conductance Response among Smartphone Users Who are Prohibited from Using Their Smartphone

Hsiu-Fen Hsieh, Hsin-Tien Hsu, Pei-Chao Lin, Yu-Jen Yang, Yu-Tung Huang, Chih-Hung Ko and Hsiu-Hung Wang
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Hsiu-Fen Hsieh: School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
Hsin-Tien Hsu: School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
Pei-Chao Lin: School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
Yu-Jen Yang: Department of Nursing, Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology, Hualien 97071, Taiwan
Yu-Tung Huang: Center for Big Data Analytics and Statistics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan City 333, Taiwan
Chih-Hung Ko: Department of Department of Psychiatry, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan
Hsiu-Hung Wang: School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: The smartphone is a widely used and rapidly growing phenomenon worldwide, and problematic smartphone use is common in our society. This study’s objective was to examine the gender difference of baseline and post-intervention skin conductance response (SCR) among smartphone users and explore the relationships among problematic smartphone use level, anxiety level, and SCR changes by evaluating SCR, the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale score, and the Chinese version of the Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) score in a one-group baseline and post-test design. Sixty participants were recruited from two communities, and data were collected from April to June 2017. There was a significant difference in terms of SCR changes between young males and old males and between young females and old females. Additionally, the SCR changes in young females were significantly greater than those in young males with twofold mean difference. This study provides strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of SCR measurement for assessing problematic smartphone use (PSU) anxiety when users are in a withdrawal-like state. The SCR measurement can help healthcare providers identify cases with risk factors of PSU for early intervention.

Keywords: problematic smartphone use; skin conductance response; anxiety; gender; withdrawal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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