Effects of Academic Stress and Academic Burnout on Smartphone Addiction in Junior High School Students

This study was performed to investigate the effects of academic stress and academic burnout on smartphone addiction in junior high school students. A survey was conducted using a convenient sample drawn from 306 students at six junior high schools in Seoul. Data were analyzed using the SPSS 23.0 program. The results show that 21.6% of students were at risk of smartphone addiction. The high risk of smartphone addiction group used smartphone longer during weekdays and weekends. In addition, the high level of academic stress and academic burnout groups showed higher smartphone addiction scores compared to the lower level of academic stress and academic burnout groups. Smartphone addiction was positively correlated with academic stress and academic burnout. Furthermore, the results show that academic achievement and attending class, academic stress and disengagement, and academic burnout affected smartphone addiction. Therefore, to prevent smartphone addiction in adolescents, academic stress should be reduced in adolescents as well as develop educational programs to help students release or control their academic stress.