Is there a relationship between smartphone addiction and cyber dating abuse among nursing students?

Digital technologies, which are widely used today, are increasingly associated with the facilitation of violence-related behaviors. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between smartphone addiction and cyberdating abuse, and some of the factors influencing this relationship.

Descriptive and cross-sectional study. The sample of the study consisted of all students studying in the nursing department of a state university in a province located in the Mediterranean region of southern Turkey. The total sample size required for the research was determined as 224. "Personal Information Form", "Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Form" and "Cyber Dating Abuse Scale" were used as data collection tools. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Correlation test. Two Mann-Whitney U, Independent-t tests, Kruskal Wallis and One-Way Anova test. The study followed the STROBE reporting guideline.

Of the participants, 50.9% were aged 18-20 years, 72.3% were female, 25.9% were third-year students, and 94.9% were single. The mean Smartphone Addiction Scale score was 28.30 ± 9.97, and the mean Cyber Dating Abuse Scale score was 56.30 ± 26.39. A weak but statistically significant positive relationship was found between smartphone addiction and all sub-dimensions of cyber dating abuse, including exposure to monitoring/control (r = 0.287, p = 0.003), exposure to direct aggression (r = 0.291, p < 0.001), exposure to violence (r = 0.278, p < 0.001), monitoring/control behaviors (r = 0.199, p = 0.003), direct aggression behaviors (r = 0.231, p < 0.001), and violence behaviors (r = 0.287, p < 0.001).

A weak but statistically significant positive relationship was found between smartphone addiction and cyber dating abuse.

Not applicable.