Creative Education, 2021, 12, 1469-1484
https://www.scirp.org/journal/ce
ISSN Online: 2151-4771
ISSN Print: 2151-4755
DOI: 10.4236/ce.2021.127112 Jul. 8, 2021 1469 Creative Education
An Educational Study on Gadget Addiction
and Mental Health among Gen Z
Shahlan Surat
1*
, Yamuna Devi Govindaraj
2
, Shalinawati Ramli
3
, Yusni Mohamad Yusop
4
1
Fakulti Pendidikan,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
2
Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia, Sungai Buloh, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
4
Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
The acceleration of modern technology in the techno gadget era has led to the
transformation of modern media highlighted by Generation Z. The aim of
this study is to explore how gadget addiction influences the level of depres-
sion, anxiety, stress and sleep quality among the samples from the Ministry of
Health Training Institution Sungai Buloh, Malaysia. Using the stratified sam-
pling method, a total of 316 college students from various field are surveyed
on the Smartphone Problematic Use Questionnaire, Depression Anxiety
Stress Scale and Pittsburg Sleeping Quality Index. The Pearson correlation
analysis and linear regression are adopted to find the relationship among the
variables. Results show that gadget addiction is a predictor of depression, an-
xiety, stress and sleep disturbances. The findings of descriptive analysis show
that the level of addiction, depression, anxiety and stress among the trainers
is high. Positive correlations are found between the gadget addiction and le-
vels of depression, anxiety, stress and sleep quality. Levels of depression, an-
xiety, stress and sleep quality among trainers are significant, with 13%, 10.7%,
12.5% and 3.4% experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and
sleeping disturbance respectively. Therefore, it is generally possible to know
that the problem of gadget addiction can interfere with mental health of the
users if the use of gadgets is not well controlled. The implications of this
study are useful to academics and heavy gadget users and those who are
hooked with their gadgets in their everyday life. Further studies in this area
are needed to delve deeper into other issues related to each element of gadget
addiction in order to reinforce the research framework which will in turn de-
velop a standard guide for controlling gadget use in Malaysia.
Keywords
Sleep Disorders, Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Addiction
How to cite this paper: Surat, S., Govin-
daraj, Y. D., Ramli, S., & Yusop, Y. M.
(2021). An Educational Study on Gadget
Addiction and Mental Health among Gen
Z. Creative Education, 12, 1469-1484.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2021.127112
Received: May 19, 2021
Accepted: July 5, 2021
Published: July 8, 2021
Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access