Abstract:

It is obvious that during the COVID-19 pandemic period, the use of smart phones has increased due to the continuing distance education in our country. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the relationship between smartphone addiction, psychological well-being and anxiety in midwifery students receiving distance education. Information of 759 midwifery students studying in midwifery undergraduate programs and receiving distance education was collected and analyzed with web-based query forms. For the collection of the data of the research, the Personal Information Form (PIF), which included 14 questions, including socio-demographic characteristics, and was created with online form tools and prepared by the researchers by scanning the literature, was used along with Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). While the mean score of the smartphone addiction scale of the students was calculated as 30.29 ± 12.42, their high addiction level (> 33 points) was found to be 36.4% (n = 276). It was determined that smartphone addiction was the most important independent factor (β= 0.32, t = 10.01, p = <0.001) affecting students' beck anxiety level. Smartphone addiction increased students' anxiety and decreased their psychological well-being.

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