Chronic Stress and Resilience of Students in Conditions of Excessive Mobile Phone Usage
Abstract
The aim of the study is to conduct theoretical-empirical research of the peculiarities of the relationship and identify significant differences in the parameters of stress and resilience in the context of the digital educational environment, in which university students use numerous mobile applications. Methods. The study involved student youth from Kazakhstan, aged 19 to 20 (n = 132), who were in their second year at universities in the country, majoring in socio-economic, bio-economic, and techno-economic fields. The studied parameters were measured using the following psychodiagnostic tools: “Leipzig Short Questionnaire on Chronic Stress” (LKCS) by K. Reschke and F. Mätzchen (2020); “Resilience Scale” (RS-25) by G. Wagnild and H. Young (1993); “Big Five Inventory” (BFI) by R. McCrae and P. Costa (1991); and “Problematic Use of Mobile Phones Scale” (PUMP) by L. Merlo, A. Stone, and A. Bibbey (2013). Results. It was found that regarding the levels of problematic mobile phone use scale expression, the group of respondents within the normal range constituted a quarter of the sample – 25.00% (n = 33), while the remaining 75.00% (n = 99) were respondents classified into the at-risk group and those with mobile phone dependence. Associations were established between the parameters of problematic mobile phone use and chronic stress (rs = .393; p = .008) and neuroticism (rs = .368; p = .014). It is explained that chronic stress is a highly sensitive parameter for problematic mobile phone use, and the association with neuroticism reinforces this statement. It was stated that in the comparison of three groups with varying levels of problematic mobile phone use expression, chronic stress is the only parameter that demonstrates significant differences between the studied groups (p ≤ .050; p ≤ .01). Discussion and Conclusions. It was substantiated that within the digital educational environment, students are compelled to use numerous mobile applications to master the academic components of their study programs, which have an impact on chronic stress. The somewhat unexpected results of the comparison are explained by the fact that even with high resilience, the excessive use of mobile phones causes a permanent effect, leading to chronic stress. It was summarized that the obtained results possess scientific value and are of interest to the organizers of the educational process at universities.
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References
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