Mapping Severe Child Nomophobia with Hierarchical Clustering and ROC

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Digital Well-being
• Public Health

Background:

• Nomophobia (smartphone separation anxiety) is understudied in young children.
• Previous research focused on adolescents and adults.
• Urban Spanish children aged 9-13 were the target demographic.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate nomophobia severity in Spanish children (9-13 years).
• To establish a data-driven cutoff for identifying severe nomophobia risk.
• To assess the relationship between nomophobia and state anxiety.

Main Methods:

• 1153 children completed the Nomophobia Questionnaire for Children (NQC) and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC).
• Hierarchical clustering categorized nomophobia severity.
• Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis determined a severe-risk threshold.

Main Results:

• Two clusters emerged: Low-to-Moderate Nomophobia (96.88%) and Severe Nomophobia (3.12%).
• A cutoff score of NQC ≥ 101.5 was established (AUC=0.993).
• Children exceeding the cutoff exhibited significantly higher state anxiety (p=0.019).

Conclusions:

• A robust threshold (NQC ≥ 101.5) identifies severe nomophobia in urban Spanish children.
• Approximately 5% of children are at elevated psychological risk.
• This cutoff serves as a practical screening tool for early intervention.