Investigation into Nomophobia amongst Turkish pre-service teachers

Smartphones have become an unavoidable part of daily life for many people due to several features and abilities which has led to their addiction to them. In conjunction with this, a new term has emerged: Nomophobia. Nomophobia is generally defined as the sense of anxiety or fear of being unable to reach or use a mobile phone. The current study was conducted in order to investigate the nomophobic behaviors of Turkish preservice teachers and to shed light on measures that could be taken to mitigate the issue. Data of the study were collected from 1066 preservice teachers, with one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests conducted to identify difference between teacher candidates’ nomophobic behaviors based on age, gender, class level, duration of mobile phone ownership, data plan ownership, and Wi-Fi accessibility. The results indicated that the variables of gender, age, class level, and having a data plan, significantly affected the preservice teachers’ nomophobic behaviors; whereas, duration of smartphone ownership and Wi-Fi connection accessibility did not affect their nomophobia behaviors. Overall, the Turkish preservice teachers, who would be responsible for raising the next generation once they graduate and start their teaching careers, were nomophobic and that some form of precautions need to be taken into consideration in order to mitigate this risk. The use of smartphones for educational purposes as part of a teacher-training course, in terms of increasing their engagement with the course, might be useful in satisfying their need for smartphone usage in a more positive way.