Anxiety about COVID-19 Infection, and Its Relation to Smartphone Addiction and Demographic Variables in Middle Eastern Countries
Open accessAbstract
This study explores the level and frequency of anxiety about COVID-19 infection in some Middle Eastern countries, and differences in this anxiety by country, gender, workplace, and social status. Another aim was to identify the predictive power of anxiety about COVID-19 infection, daily smartphone use hours, and age in smartphone addiction. The participants were 651 males and females from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. The participants’ ages ranged between 18 and 73 years (M 33.36, SD = 10.69). A questionnaire developed by the authors was used to examine anxiety about COVID-19 infection. Furthermore, the Italian Smartphone Addiction Inventory was used after being translated, adapted, and validated for the purposes of the present study. The results revealed that the percentages of participants with high, average, and low anxiety about COVID-19 infection were 10.3%, 37.3%, and 52.4%, respectively. The mean scores of anxiety about COVID-19 infection in the four countries were average: Egypt (M = 2.655), Saudi Arabia (M = 2.458), the United Arab Emirates (M = 2.413), and Jordan (M = 2.336). Significant differences in anxiety about COVID-19 infection were found between Egypt and Jordan, in favor of Egypt. Significant gender differences were found in favor of females in the Jordanian and Egyptian samples, and in favor of males in the Emirati sample. No significant differences were found regarding workplace and social status. The results also revealed a significant positive relationship between anxiety about COVID-19 infection, daily smartphone use hours, and age on the one hand, and smartphone addiction on the other. The strongest predictor of smartphone addiction was anxiety about COVID-19 infection, followed by daily use hours. Age did not significantly contribute to the prediction of smartphone addiction. The study findings shed light on the psychological health and cognitive aspects of anxiety about COVID-19 infection and its relation to smartphone addiction.
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Fear of COVID-19 and anxiety regarding COVID-19 infection are significant positive predictors of smartphone addiction.
“Research has shown that the fear of COVID-19 and anxiety regarding COVID-19 infection are identified as significant positive predictors of smartphone addiction [10,11].”
From COVID-19 Victimization Experience and College Students’ Mobile Phone Addiction: A Moderated Mediation Effect of Future Anxiety and Mindfulness (2022) · cites this paper as [11]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Chen, L., Li, J., & Huang, J. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19137578 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
- Authors
- Al. Qudah, M. F., Albursan, I. S., Hammad, H. I., Alzoubi, A. M., Bakhiet, S. F., Almanie, A. M., Alenizi, S. S., Aljomaa, S. S., & Al-Khadher, M. M.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology, College of Education, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
- King Saud University (SA)
- Al-Balqa Applied University (JO)
- Ajman University (AE)
- Corresponding author
- Bakhiet, Salaheldin Farah
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-10-20
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 21
- Pages
- 11016
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8583364
- OpenAlex
- W3206784757
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 3.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- king saud university (RG-1438-064)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Communication › Communication and COVID-19 Impact
- Keywords
- smartphone addiction, age, gender differences, workplace, social status, Middle Eastern countries, mental health
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Internet Addiction Disorder, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Anxiety, Demography, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Behavior, Addictive, Young Adult
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