Volume : 8, Issue : 6, June - 2019

MINDFULNESS BASED INTERVENTION FOR MANAGING PROBLEMATIC USAGE OF MOBILE PHONES

Nandini. J, Sarah Sruti Lall

Abstract :

Mobile phone being considered an “affective technology” is deeply connected to the emo-tional lives of users and is a powerful tool in Cyber Psychology. With widespread globalisa-tion, mobile phone addiction has been on the rise in a developing country like India [1]. However, very little scientific research has been done on the effectiveness of various forms of psychological intervention for the treatment of problematic mobile phone usage. In line with this, the present study aims to develop a mindfulness based module exclusively designed to address the said issue and test its efficacy among a group of at-risk late adolescents. A quasi- experimental research design, following a before-after without control paradigm was adopt-ed. A sample of 33 undergraduate female college students between 17-19 years of age (Mage = 18 years) were purposively selected to take part in the study. The Mobile Phone Problemat-ic Usage Questionnaire (MPPUQ)[2] was used. The target group was exposed to a five hour session on “Mindfulness for problematic phone usage”. Repeated measures t -test was used to determine significant changes across the scores on the three dimensions of MPPUQ (pre-occupation, withdrawal symptoms and overuse of mobile phones). The results revealed signif-icant difference in MPPUQ scores before and after the intervention with a reduction in scores following the mindfulness based intervention (t (32) = 1.91 p<.05). It also revealed a signifi-cant decrease in the scores on ‘overuse’ factor (t (32) = 2.35 p<.05) and ‘Withdrawal’ factor of the MPPUQ (t (32) = 1.18, p<.01).