The Nexus of Stress, Anxiety Symptoms, and Smartphone Addiction among Expatriate Students

Abstract

Smartphone addiction among students has been a topic of interest in recent years. While research in this area is ongoing, the current study aims to investigate the association between stress, anxiety symptoms, and smartphone addiction among expatriate students. The sample of the study, consisting of 84 participants (51 male and 33 female), was selected from a different educational stream. The study adopts three tools: a self-evaluation anxiety scale, a stress scale, and a smartphone addiction scale. The findings showed that the level of stress was the highest one, followed by the level of smartphone addiction. Moreover, anxiety symptoms were at their lowest level among the participants. Furthermore, a significant positive correlation between stress, anxiety symptoms, and smartphone addiction was found. Also, smartphone addiction correlated positively and significantly with anxiety symptoms. Finally, the findings failed to detect statistically significant differences based on the participant’s gender.