Examination of phone addiction and social anxiety levels of secondary school students in terms of the sport variable

This research aims to examine in detail the levels of smartphone addiction and social anxiety among secondary school students in terms of different variables. The study sample consisted of 500 students in total, 268 of whom were female (53,6%) and 232 were male (46,4%). The data collection tools used in the study were a personal information form developed by the researcher, the Smartphone Addiction Scale adapted into Turkish by Şata and Karip (2017), and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents adapted into Turkish by Aydın and Sütçü (2007). The obtained data were analyzed using the SPSS software package. It was determined that the data showed a normal distribution. In addition to descriptive statistics, the Independent Samples T-Test was used for pairwise comparisons, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for comparing more than two groups, and Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between variables. The research findings revealed that female students had statistically significantly higher smartphone addiction and GDSK scores compared to male students (p<0,05). When examining participation in sports, one of the main variables of the study, it was found that students who participated in licensed sports had significantly lower levels of smartphone addiction compared to their non-sporting peers (p<0,05). Correlation analyses showed positive and significant relationships between smartphone addiction and the total social anxiety score and its sub-dimensions (p<0,05). In conclusion, the study reveals that engaging in sports is a protective factor in reducing social anxiety levels in adolescents; conversely, smartphone addiction is found to have a simultaneous and reinforcing relationship with social anxiety, independently of the sports variable.