earticle

영어

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate the factors associated with long hours of smartphone usage and to identify the characteristics of the high-risk group among female middle school students in South Korea. Methods: The study analyzed the data of 13,648 female middle school students using their own smartphone extracted from the 13th Youth Health Behavior Online Survey (2017). The factors related to using smartphones for a long time was analyzed by binomial logistic regression. The characteristics of the high-risk group was defined by a decision tree analysis. Results: The average hours spent on smartphone usage was 269.54 minutes per day. The significant factors associated with the long hours of smartphone usage were grade, living with parents, perceived household economic status, perceived academic achievement, stress, sadness and hopelessness, the main purpose of smartphone usage, drinking, body mass index, breakfast, and satisfaction with sleep quality. The subjects showing low academic performance and having breakfast four times a week or less were more likely to use their smartphone for a long time. Conclusion: Based on the results of the research, we need to establish intervention strategies focusing on the factors influencing long-time usage of smartphone. Particularly, the subjects who show poor academic performance and skip breakfast frequently should be considered as the high-risk group for spending long hours on smartphone usage.