Comparing Rumination and Depression Scores in Employed and Unemployed Mothers of Children with Smartphone Addiction in Tehran, 2019-2020

Smartphone addiction is a serious growing problem with similarities to game addiction and even drug addiction. Nowadays, a large number of Iranian children and teenagers find themselves addicted to their smartphones. This type of addiction has a serious impact on mental health among mothers. This study aimed to compare depression and rumination scores among employed and unemployed mothers of preschool children with smartphone addiction.

This is a descriptive correlational study, in which 150 mothers of preschool children were selected as the sample group. In this study, the Cellphone Overuse Scale (COS), the Beck Depression Questionnaire, and the Intellectual Rumination Questionnaire were utilized. In addition, the Pearsonchr('39')s correlation coefficient and the independent samples t-test methods were used for data analysis.

According to the results, the mean and standard deviation of depression and rumination among employed and unemployed mothers were (M= 3.83, SD= 3.78) and (M=8.48, SD= 7.83), respectively. In addition, the mean of rumination among unemployed mothers (M= 24.08 SD=13.65) was significantly higher than that among employed mothers (M= 14.42, SD= 8.34) (p < 0.05).

The findings provide the preliminary foundation for further studies on designing effective prevention programs to prevent depression and rumination among mothers with children addicted to smartphones.