The Effect of Information Therapy on Nomophobia in Students

Physical or psychological dependence on something or someone unconsciously creates a kind of relationship with the desire for stability and the fear of its loss causes annoyance and stress. Obviously, the daily and constant use of mobile phones also causes this type of dependence and the anxiety of separation from the mobile phone can make a person face psychological insecurity and even create the basis for the occurrence of diseases such as pessimism. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of information therapy on nomophobia (non-mobile phobia) of post-graduate students of Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran.

This research is semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The statistical population of this research includes graduate students of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in the academic year of 2022-23. The selection of the subjects in this research in the first stage was purposefully selected based on the objectives of the research as available, but they randomly replaced in 3 experimental and control groups. To select the sample, all graduate students who were physically present in the study halls of the central library of the university for a long time (more than 20 hours per week) and used the library space were examined from the existing list and a questionnaire with questions with a short answer, questions related to the amount of mobile phone use and their feelings when the phone is turned off or the Internet is not available, etc. were distributed among them and accordingly, 40 of the students dependent on mobile phones with demographic characteristics Those who received the highest marks based on this self-report questionnaire were selected as the subjects of this research. The sample of this study was made up of 40 students dependent on mobile phones, 10 people in 4 experimental groups (receiving information by watching a video), the experimental group receiving information by reading the texts, 10 people were divided into the experimental group (receiving information about participation in counseling sessions) and the control group of 10 people. Information therapy training was provided to the students of the experimental groups during six two-hour sessions, while the control group did not receive any special training. All three levels of information therapy (video, text and counseling) included 12 different educational discussion topics, two of which were used in each session and the educational environment (information therapy) was the same for all groups. All 4 groups were measured in the pre-test and post-test with Yildirim & Correia’s nomophobia questionnaires (2015).

According to the findings of this research, it should be said that the difference between the group of watching the movie and the group of reading the texts, counseling sessions with the control group was 0.30, 1.90 and 1.50, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 2.20 and 1.80, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control group was 0.40. Based on the results of one-way analysis of variance, there was no significant difference between the 4 studied groups in the stage before the experiment (P>0.05). Considering that the design of this research is a pre-test-post-test with a control group and the purpose of the pre-test is to control the primary statistical difference, analysis of covariance with Benferroni's post-hoc test was used to investigate the difference in the amount of mobile phobia after the implementation of the experimental variables. The difference between the movie watching group and the text reading, counseling and control groups was 1.21, 45.76 and 57.67, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 46.98 and 58.89, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control was 11.91. Based on the results of Benferroni's post-hoc test, there was a significant difference between the three experimental groups and the control group. There was no significant difference between the two experimental groups of watching the movie and reading the texts. There was a significant difference between the two experimental groups of watching movies and reading texts with the group of counseling sessions. Based on these results, it can be said that all three educational methods of watching movies, reading texts and counseling sessions have been effective in reducing mobile phone phobia. The effect of watching movies and reading texts in reducing mobile phone phobia has been the same but more than the method of counseling sessions. It should be noted that the results of this research are not generalizable due to the way it was conducted and we may face different results in different societies.

The results of covariance analysis showed that information therapy was effective in reducing students' nomophobia and this effect was seen more in the experimental group of reading texts and watching movies; according to the findings of this research, it should be said that the difference between the group of watching the movie and the group of reading the texts, counseling sessions with the control group was 0.30, 1.90 and 1.50, respectively. The difference between the text study group and the counseling and control groups was 2.20 and 1.80, respectively. The difference between the group of counseling sessions and the control was 0.40; therefore, it can be concluded that information therapy is effective in reducing students' nomophobia. In fact, it can be said that providing the right information at the right time helps a person's decision-making in the process of changing behavior and it is a process that is achieved through the dynamic interaction of the patient with the text. Information therapy is seen as a method to increase the relationship between the doctor and the patient and sometimes people find the information they need from the Internet.