Relationship between Loneliness and Fear of Negative Social Evaluation with Problematic Mobile Phone Use in Students

The harmful effects of problem usage of mobile phones are expanding drastically, and factors such as a sense of loneliness and social anxiety can lead to excessive dependence on them and adverse consequences. In this work, we attempted to investigate the relationship between a sense of loneliness and fear of negative evaluation (FNE) of social anxiety in students excessively using mobile phones. It was a descriptive-analytical study conducted on 282 students of the Farhangian University of Zabol (140 females and 142 males) selected through randomized cluster sampling. Research tools were the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1978), Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (Leary, 1983), and Mobile Phone Problem Usage Scale (MPPUS; Bianchi & Phillips, 2005). Data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient formula and regression analysis. The sense of loneliness and fear of negative evaluation respectively predicted 32% (P<0.01; Beta = 0.566) and 22% (P<0.01; Beta = 0.472) of the variance of problem usage of mobile phones. In general, the results showed that a sense of loneliness and social anxiety lead to dependence on mobile phones and problem usage of them.