From Social Anxiety to Smartphone Addiction: Investigating the Predictive Role of Social Interaction Anxiety in Problematic Smartphone Use among Adults in Dhaka City

Smartphone overuse is recognized as a global pandemic and one of the most pervasive psychological precursors to social anxiety is considered to be the use of smartphones. In the present study, social interaction anxiety was investigated as a predictor of smartphone addiction and the differences in the predictiveness of social interaction anxiety on smartphone addiction were explored among selected demographic groups. A cross sectional quantitative survey design was employed to collect the data from 175 adults (81 male, 94 female) aged 18-60 years from various parts of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The Bangla version of the Bangla Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS) and Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) were filled out by the participants. Pearson product-moment correlation, independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA and simple linear regression were used in SPSS 25 to analyze data. Social anxiety had positive and significant correlations with total smartphone addiction (r = .541; p < .01) and all scales of the SAS except for social dysfunction (r = .034; p > .05). The highest correlations were obtained with scales of withdrawal (r = .486; p < .01) and cyberspace-oriented relationship (r = .489; p < .01). Social anxiety significantly explained smartphone addiction, β = .541, F(1, 173) = 71.76, p < .001, and accounted for 29.3% of the variance (adjusted R-squared = .289). The scores of social anxiety (t = -2.324, p < .05) and smartphone addiction (t = -1.980, p < .05) were significantly higher among participants of extended families than those of nuclear families and socio-economic status was significantly associated with social anxiety, F(2, 172) = 4.625, p < .05. Gender and educational qualification/occupation were not significantly different. Results provide evidence for compensatory use of smartphones and suggest interventions to be anxiety oriented and family sensitive in urban Bangladesh.

Social anxiety, Smartphone addiction, Compensatory use, Family type, Bangladesh

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