Predicting Nomophobia Based on Personality Traits and Sleep Quality: The Mediating Role of Anxious Thoughts

The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between personality traits and sleep quality with nomophobia, considering the mediating role of anxious thoughts. The descriptive research method was of the correlational type and the statistical population of this research was made up of all undergraduate students of Kharazmi University of Tehran in 2018-2019, of which there were 303 people (133 girls, 170 boys) using stratified sampling method according to the size of the selection. The research tools were nomophobia questionnaire (NMP-Q), NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-FFI), anxiety thoughts (ANTI) and Pittsburgh sleep quality (PSQI). At the level of inferential findings, the relationship between the variables was tested with the Pearson correlation test and the research model was tested with the path analysis technique. Data analysis was done using SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 statistical software. In this research, the direct relationship between the three personality traits of neuroticism, extroversion and openness to experience with anxious thoughts was significant. Also, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, sleep quality and anxious thoughts are directly related to nomophobia. The indirect relationship between neuroticism, openness to experience and sleep quality was significant, but the indirect effect of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness on nomophobia was not significant. The results showed that personality traits and sleep quality as independent variables and anxiety thoughts as mediating variables are an important factor in predicting nomophobia, therefore, according to these variables, programs can be planned for the prevention, intervention and control of nomophobia.