Examining the Relationships between Smartphone Addiction and Psychological Resilience in Adolescents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46328/ijemst.7374Keywords:
Smartphone addiction, Psychological resilience, Adolescents, Digital risk behaviors, Protective factorsAbstract
The aim of this study is to examine the relational relationship between adolescent psychological resilience and smartphone addiction in terms of certain variables. The research was designed within the framework of a quantitative research approach and conducted using a correlational survey model. Research data were collected from 267 students studying in two different provinces in Turkey in 2025. The Short Psychological Resilience Scale and the Smartphone Addiction Scale were used as data collection tools in the research. Descriptive analyses, Independent Samples t-Test, and One-Way ANOVA were used in the analysis of the data. The findings showed that adolescents' psychological resilience levels were above average, while their smartphone addiction was relatively high; that boys had higher psychological resilience than girls, but that addiction levels did not differ significantly according to gender. In addition, it was determined that smartphone addiction decreased as the grade level increased, and that psychological resilience negatively and significantly predicted smartphone addiction, explaining 7.8% of the variance in addiction. It is recommended that psychoeducational content aimed at strengthening psychological resilience be systematically integrated into guidance services. It is also recommended to collect data from multiple sources and include contextual variables in the model.
References
Alkal, A. (2025). The role of psychological flexibility and emotion regulation in the relationship between smartphone addiction and psychological wellbeing in adolescents: Three-wave longitudinal serial mediation study. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 23(1), 89-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-025-02405-8
Attasara, P., Thaweekoon, T., & Napa, W. (2025). Perceived stress, loneliness, and resilience in relation to game addiction among adolescents in bangkok during the COVID‐19 pandemic transition period. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 38(4), e70044. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcap.70044
Baldwin, C. A., & Nasırcı, H. (2024). Technological Advancements and International Organizations in Education: A Comparative Study of China and Myanmar in the Context of Deglobalization. Anatolian Turkish Journal of Education, 6(3), 313-333.
Chen, J. H., Tong, K. K., Wu, A. M. S., Lau, J. T. F., & Zhang, M. X. (2018). The comorbidity of gambling disorder among macao adult residents and the moderating role of resilience and life purpose. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(12), 2774. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122774
Choi, E., Chun, M. Y., Lee, I., Yoo, Y., & Kim, M. (2020). The effect of mind subtraction meditation intervention on smartphone addiction and the psychological wellbeing among adolescents. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(9), 3263. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093263
Coskun, E. (2025). An investigation of the relationship between academic self-efficacy, achievement motivation, and smartphone addiction. International Journal on Studies in Education, 7(4), 959-977.
Doğan, T. (2015). Kısa psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği’nin türkçe uyarlaması: Geçerlik ve güvenirlik çalışması. The Journal of Happiness ve Well-Being, 1(3), 93-102.
Dong, F., Bu, Z., Jiang, S., Liu, Y., Lin, J., Li, J., Li, J., & Liu, Y. (2025). Cross-lagged panel relationship between physical activity atmosphere, psychological resilience and mobile phone addiction on college students. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 16599-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-97848-w
El-Shihy, D. (2026). A Mixed-Methods Study of Social Media Addiction in Egyptian Gen Z: Psychological, Educational, and Academic Consequences and Intervention Pathways. Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Language, 6(1), 223-247. https://doi.org/10.71514/jssal/2025.226
Fischer-Grote, L., Kothgassner, O. D., & Felnhofer, A. (2019). Risk factors for problematic smartphone use in children and adolescents: A review of existing literature. Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie Und Rehabilitation : Organ Der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte Und Psychiater, 33(4), 179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40211-019-00319-8
Gu, X., & Mao, E. Z. (2023). The impacts of academic stress on college students' problematic smartphone use and internet gaming disorder under the background of neijuan: Hierarchical regressions with mediational analysis on escape and coping motives. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 1032700. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1032700
Jeon, M., Lee, M., Yoon, J., & Bhang, S. (2022). Mental health literacy of internet gaming disorder and problematic smartphone use among korean teenagers. PloS One, 17(7), e0270988. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270988
Karakose, T., Tülübaş, T., & Papadakis, S. (2022). Revealing the intellectual structure and evolution of digital addiction research: An integrated bibliometric and science mapping approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(22), 14883. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214883
Kwon, M., Kim, D., Cho, H., ve Yang, S. (2013). The Smartphone AddictionScale: Development and Validation of a Short Version for Adolescents. PLoS ONE, 8(12), 1-2.
Lazarotto Schroeder, G., Heckler, W., Francisco, R., & Barbosa, J. L. V. (2023). Problematic smartphone use on mental health: A systematic mapping study and taxonomy. Behaviour & Information Technology, 42(16), 2808-2831. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2022.2149422
Li, M., Huang, Y., & Sun, M. (2025). Exploring the structural links between peer support, psychological resilience, and exercise adherence in adolescents: A multigroup model across gender and educational stages. BMC Public Health, 25(1), 2300-22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23308-9
Li, N., Wang, D., Zhao, X., Li, Z., & Zhang, L. (2024). The association between physical exercise behavior and psychological resilience of teenagers: An examination of the chain mediating effect. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 9372-11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-60038-1
Li, Q., & Liu, Z. (2025). Parental psychological control and adolescent smartphone addiction: Roles of reactance and resilience. BMC Psychology, 13(1), 139-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-02477-7
Li, Y., Mu, W., Xie, X., & Kwok, S. Y. C. L. (2023). Network analysis of internet gaming disorder, problematic social media use, problematic smartphone use, psychological distress, and meaning in life among adolescents. Digital Health, 9https://doi.org/10.1177/20552076231158036
Li, Z., Shi, L., & Cai, X. (2022). Smartphone addiction is more harmful to adolescents than internet gaming disorder: Divergence in the impact of parenting styles. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1044190. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1044190
Liu, Q., Ouyang, L., Fan, L., Liao, A., Li, Z., Chen, X., Yuan, L., & He, Y. (2024). Association between childhood trauma and internet gaming disorder: A moderated mediation analysis with depression as a mediator and psychological resilience as a moderator. BMC Psychiatry, 24(1), 412-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-024-05863-4
Liu, Y., Lin, Y., Zhao, S., Wang, F., Yuan, Q., & Tong, Y. (2026). Mobile phone addiction and academic procrastination in adolescents: The serial mediating roles of Self‐Regulation and psychological resilience and the moderating role of the Parent‐Child relationship. Brain and Behavior, 16(1), e71169-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.71169
Long, J., Liu, T., Liao, Y., Qi, C., He, H., Chen, S., & Billieux, J. (2016). Prevalence and correlates of problematic smartphone use in a large random sample of chinese undergraduates. BMC Psychiatry, 16(1), 408-408. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-016-1083-3
Long, J., Liu, Y., Wang, Y., Pottié, A., Cornil, A., Deleuze, J., Wu, Q., Chen, S., Ma, Y., Wang, Q., Hao, Y., Lu, J., Radu, I., Liu, T., & Billieux, J. (2024). The mediating effects of perceived family support in the relationship between anxiety and problematic smartphone use: A cross-cultural validation. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 212(2), 76. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001738
Ma, A., Yang, Y., Guo, S., Li, X., Zhang, S., & Chang, H. (2022). Adolescent resilience and mobile phone addiction in henan province of china: Impacts of chain mediating, coping style. PloS One, 17(12), e0278182. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278182
Noyan, C. O., Darçın, A. E., Nurmedov, S., Yılmaz, O., ve Dilbaz, N. (2015). Akıllı Telefon Bağımlılığı Ölçeğinin Kısa Formunun üniversite öğrencilerinde Türkçe geçerlilik ve güvenilirlik çalışması. Anadolu Psikiyatri Dergisi(16), 73-81.
Poetar, C., Dobrean, A., & Florean, I. S. (2024). Problematic smartphone use and mental health problems: A network analysis of romanian adolescents. Youth & Society, 56(6), 1048-1070. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X231218295
Smith, B. W., Tooley, E. M., Christopher, P., ve Kay, V. S. (2008). Resilience as the ability to bounce back:Aneglected personal resource?. Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 166-176.
Subramaniam, M., Koh, Y. S., Sambasivam, R., Samari, E., Abdin, E., Jeyagurunathan, A., Tan, B. C. W., Zhang, Y., Ma, S., Chow, W. L., & Chong, S. A. (2024). Problematic smartphone use and mental health outcomes among singapore residents: The health and lifestyle survey. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 98, 104124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2024.104124
Tai, Z., Chen, H., & Li, Y. (2025). Problematic smartphone use among middle school and high school students in china: A cross-sectional survey study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 23(5), 3879-3894. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-024-01326-9
Tang, A. C. Y., Lee, R. L., Chan, A. C., Kwan, R. Y. C., & Lee, P. H. (2025). Mindfulness-based cognitive program as a potential intervention for managing smartphone addiction and resilience in adolescents: A pilot evaluation. Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine, 13(1), 2508833. https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2025.2508833
Warburton, W. A., Parkes, S., & Sweller, N. (2022). Internet gaming disorder: Evidence for a risk and resilience approach. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(9), 5587. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095587
Wu, J., Shao, Y., Zang, W., & Hu, J. (2025). Is physical exercise associated with reduced adolescent social anxiety mediated by psychological resilience?: Evidence from a longitudinal multi-wave study in china. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 19(1), 17-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-025-00867-8
Yao, W., Hou, H., Yang, P., & Ni, S. (2025). The co-occurrence of adolescent smartphone addiction and academic burnout: The role of smartphone stress and digital flourishing. Education and Information Technologies, 30(4), 4987-5007. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13017-y
Yıldırım, M., & Çiçek, İ. (2022). Fear of COVID-19 and smartphone addiction among turkish adolescents: Mitigating role of resilience. The Family Journal (Alexandria, Va.), https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807221139510
Yu, S., & Sussman, S. (2020). Does smartphone addiction fall on a continuum of addictive behaviors? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), 422. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020422
Yu, Z., Lai, X., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., & Zhao, H. (2025). Implicit benefits of adolescents with high psychological resilience in action control of emotion regulation. PloS One, 20(9), e0332384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0332384
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Articles may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Authors alone are responsible for the contents of their articles. The journal owns the copyright of the articles. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of the research material.
The author(s) of a manuscript agree that if the manuscript is accepted for publication in the journal, the published article will be copyrighted using a Creative Commons “Attribution 4.0 International” license. This license allows others to freely copy, distribute, and display the copyrighted work, and derivative works based upon it, under certain specified conditions.
Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission to include any images or artwork for which they do not hold copyright in their articles, or to adapt any such images or artwork for inclusion in their articles. The copyright holder must be made explicitly aware that the image(s) or artwork will be made freely available online as part of the article under a Creative Commons “Attribution 4.0 International” license.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
