The Influences of Adult Attachment and Ego-resilience on SNS Addiction Proneness of Nursing Students
Yun-Jeong Oh
1, Young-Hee Cho
*21 Professor, Dept of Nursing, Nambu University, Gwangju, Korea
*2 Professor, Dept of Nursing, Kwangju Women’s University, Gwangju, Korea [email protected]1, [email protected],ac,kr*2
Corresponding author*: Young-Hee Cho, E-mail : [email protected],ac,kr
Abstract
Background/Objectives: This study was a descriptive research study to understand the effect of nursing students' adult
attachment and ego-resilience on SNS addiction proneness.
Methods/Statistical analysis: The results of the questionnaire were collected from September 1, 2019 to September 20,
2019 from 200 nursing students in G-city. The collected data ware analyzed through descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation effectiveness, multiple linear regression using SPSS/WIN 23.0 program (IBM Inc. , Chicago, IL, USA).
Findings: As a result of analysis, adult attachment showed a meaningful positive relationship with SNS addiction
proneness (r=425, <.001), but negative relationship with ego-resilience(r=.-293, p<.001). Factors that influenced satisfaction in SNS addiction proneness is adult attachment (p<.001).
Improvements/Applications: It is necessary to develop and consider a program to protect the abuse of SNS in advance
and cope with the trend of SNS addiction.
Keywords: Adult Attachment, Ego-resilience, SNS Addiction Proneness, Nursing students, Influencing factor
1. Introduction
In the modern society, smart phones are rapidly spreading as information can be obtained through convenient use and simple Internet access. When it is difficult to think about everyday life without a smartphone, more than 91% of our country's population use smartphones, and most of them use the Internet[1]. The trend of global education modernization in the 21st century is developing rapidly, especially in the field of education technology[2]. SNS stands for Social Network Service and refers to a service that enables people to reinforce existing human relationships or create new relationships based on the web. The popularization of smartphones has made the use of SNS(Social Network Service) more active. Many people gain a sense of belonging or connection by forming relationships in a virtual space called online without having to communicate face-to-face through SNS[3]. The advantage of SNS is the formation of a bond through rapid information transmission and communication, but excessive use is related to mental fatigue, depression, anxiety, and impulsiveness, and can be more addictive than substances such as alcohol or nicotine[4]. According to a study by the National Information Society Agency(NIS), 18.8% of adults aged 20- 59 years, including college students, were at risk of overdependence, which increased steadily every year. The development of science and technology pursues usefulness and efficiency, but as the usage rate increases, it can cause many problems including addiction and cause social problems, so exploratory research is needed to prevent them. If your self-esteem declines due to difficulty in adapting to social life or not being recognized by other people, SNS is considered a more attractive space and can lead to SNS Addiction Proneness. In particular, college students have high SNS Addiction Proneness when they are lonesome or have difficulty in interpersonal relationships, and when they have interpersonal problems in reality, they become more severe[5]. If you have negative emotions such as depression and anxiety while living in college, you use the Internet more to avoid them. In particular, nursing students experience a lot of stress due to the heavy academic volume and clinical practice, and this stress can lead to smartphone addiction. In previous studies, the smartphone addiction level of nursing students was higher than that of general university students[6]. Therefore, smartphone addiction of nursing college students can lead to serious SNS addiction proneness, so it is necessary to identify the factors that affect them and devise measures to prevent them. Therefore, smartphone addiction of nursing college students can lead to serious SNS addiction proneness, so it is necessary to identify the factors that affect them and devise measures to prevent them.
Attachment refers to a strong emotional bond that an individual feels with another in an intimate relationship[7]. If an unsafe attachment is formed because an appropriate attachment experience has not been formed in the past, it may be difficult to form a relationship, but the attachment pattern may change during the growth process, so the adult attachment may be different from the pattern at the beginning of life[7]. The stronger the Anxious Attachment is, the more obsessed with the other person's attachment to others because of fear of being abandoned by other people, so it requires excessive relationships with others to confirm that they are loved, and this is expected to be related to SNS Addiction Proneness. Ego-resilience is a psychological concept that means adapting healthily without showing behavioral and emotional problems even in difficult environments[8], in stressful situations, it can cause behavioral changes by flexibly controlling emotions that affect human behavior and helping to
respond flexibly to situations[9]. Ego-resilience is characterized by a positive attitude, and a positive attitude is a function to cope with in an adaptive situation. Previous studies have shown that the higher the Ego-resilience, the lower the smartphone addiction level[10]. Based on this, this study considered Ego-resilience as a factor that can reduce SNS Addiction Proneness. Based on the above discussion, this study investigates the effects of Adult Attachment and Ego-resilience on SNS Addiction Proneness for nursing students with high addiction tendency, and through this, activities to prevent SNS Addiction Proneness of university students and solve related problems. I would like to provide basic data for this.
2. Methods
2.1. Research Design
This study was a descriptive research study to understand the effect of nursing students' adult attachment and ego-resilience on SNS addiction proneness.
2.2. Participants &Data Collection
This study was Collected from 200 students who were voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Data collection period is from September 1, 2019 to September 20, 2019.
2.3. Instrument
2.3.1. General characteristics
The general characteristics were 5 items including age, gender, grade, experience of SNS, SNS used days.
2.3.2. Adult Attachment
The existing measurement tools were used[11]. The 36 items were composed of 5 points scoring of ‘strongly agree = 5 points’,
‘agree = 4points’, ‘normal = 3 points’, ‘disagree = 2points’, ‘strongly disagree = 1 point’ scale. It has two sub-areas, anxious attachment, avoidance attachment. The higher score means more positive adult attachment. Reliability analysis showed Cronbach's α coefficient was .91.
2.3.3. Ego-resilience
The existing measurement tools were used[12]. The 14 items were composed of 4 points scoring of ‘strongly agree = 4 points’,
‘agree = 4points’, ‘disagree = 2points’, ‘strongly disagree = 1 point’ scale. The higher score means more positive Ego-resilience.
Reliability analysis showed Cronbach's α coefficient was .84.
2.3.4. SNS Addiction Proneness
The existing measurement tools were used[13]. The 24 items were composed of 5 points scoring of ‘strongly agree = 5 points’,
‘agree = 4points’, ‘normal = 3 points’, ‘disagree = 2points’, ‘strongly disagree = 1 point’ scale. It has four sub-areas SNS control failure and daily living disorder, SNS immersion and tolerance, SNS avoidance of negative emotions, SNS virtual world
orientation and withdrawal. The higher score means more positive SNS Addiction Proneness. Reliability analysis showed Cronbach's α coefficient was .94.
2.4. Materials and Methods
The collected data ware analyzed through descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation effectiveness, multiple linear regression using SPSS/WIN 23.0 program.
3. Results and Discussion
The general characteristics of participants in this study as shown in Table 1. The average age of the subjects is 20.02 years. The gender of the subjects was 37 males (18.5%), 163 females (81.5%), and the first grade was 84 (42.6%), followed by 67 second graders (33.5%) and 48 third graders (23.0%), followed by 3 4th graders (1.5%). Economy level moderate 63.5%, high 18.0%, low 8.0%, very low 7.0%, very high 3.5%. 176 (88.0%) answered yes and 24 (12.0%) answered whether they used SNS. As a result of looking at the devices using SNS for 176 students who responded as using SNS, most of them answered that they mainly use smartphones 159 (90.3%), 7 tablet PCs (4.0%), and 6 others (3.4 %), followed by 4 computers (2.3%). The highest number of respondents using SNS every day was 116 (65.9%), with 24 (13.6%) on the 5th to 6th, 16 (9.1%) on the 1st to 2nd, and 15 on the 3rd to 4th (8.5%), 5 patients (2.8%) showed less than 1 day.
Table 1. General characteristics of subjects (N=200)
Characteristics Categories n(%), M
±sd
Age(yrs) Range 19-26 20.02
±
1.17Gender Male 37(18.5)
Female 163(81.5)
Grade
1st year 84(42.0)
2nd year 67(33.5)
3rd year 48(24.0)
4rd year 3(1.5)
Economy level
Very low 14(7.0)
low 16(8.0)
moderate 127(63.5)
high 36(18.0)
Very high 7(3.5)
Experience of SNS Yes 176(88.0)
No 24(12.0)
Tools
Smart phone 159(90.3)
PC 7(4.0)
Computer 4(2.3)
Etc 6(3.4)
SNS used days
Less than 1 day 5(2.8)
1~2days a week 16(9.1)
3~4days a week 15(8.6)
5~6days a week 24(13.6)
Every day 116(65.9)
Comparison of Dependent Variables between Two Group in this study as shown in Table 2. There were no significant differences in Adult attachment (t = 0.231, p = .818), Ego-resilience (t = 1.829, p = .069), and SNS addiction proneness (t = -1.374, p = .171) according to gender.
Table 2. Comparison of Dependent Variables between Two Group (N=200)
Variables Male
M ±SD
Female
M ±SD t p
Adult Attachment 2.77±0.52 2.50±0.47 0.231 .818
Ego-Resilience 3.02±0.47 2.87±0.43 1.829 .069
SNS Addiction Proneness 2.30±0.79 2.49±0.76 -1.374 .171
Table 3 shows the correlation between adult attachment, ego-resilience, and SNS addiction proneness. First of all, looking at the main variables, the higher the adult attachment, the higher the SNS addiction proneness (r = .425, p <.001). Also, the higher adult attachment, the less ego-resilience (r = -.293, p <.001). But, there was no correlation between ego-resilience and SNS addiction proneness(r = -.054, p = .446).
Table 3. Correlation of Adult Attachment, Ego-Resilience, SNS Addiction Proneness (N=200)
Adult Attachment r(p)
Ego-Resilience r(p)
SNS Addiction Proneness r(p)
Adult Attachment 1
Ego-Resilience -.293**(<.001) 1
SNS Addiction Proneness .425**(<.001) -.054**(.446) 1
The factors affecting the satisfaction of SNS addiction tendency are shown in Table 4. The only factor affecting the satisfaction of social media addiction tendency was adult attachment. These variables showed a significant factor, the regression analysis, and explained 21.1% of the variance, as can be seen in Table 4.
Table 4. Influencing Factors on SNS Addiction Proneness (N=200)
Variables B β t Adj R2 F p
Adult Attachment .687 .425 6.598 21.091 4.531 <.001
This study was a descriptive research study to understand the effect of nursing students' adult attachment and ego-resilience on SNS addiction proneness. This study was collected from 200 students who were voluntarily agreed to participate in the study.
Data collection period is from September 1, 2019 to September 20, 2019. Event measurement tools were adult attachment 36 items, ego-resilience 14 items, and SNS addiction proneness 24 items. The discussion centering on the results obtained through this study is as follows. In this study, 65.9% of people used SNS every day, and 90.3% of them used a smartphone. These results refer to the use of SNS using a smartphone in most cases. As a result of examining the status of college students' use of SNS, it was found that 86.5% of college students use SNS, and most of them use smartphones (79.0%). It can be seen that most college students use SNS through smartphones that are easy to access and easy to use. Just 8 years ago, the most used SNS were Twitter and Facebook[14], which grew PC-based, but now with the development of smart phone applications, college students can use Facebook, Youtube and Instagram more easily with their smartphones. In addition, it was found that most college students use SNS every day, and they used SNS to know the current status of their friends through texts and photos, and to contact them. Therefore, it can be seen that SNS using a smartphone is becoming an important way to know the current situation of friends, communicate with each other, and maintain a relationship with each other. The desire to share information or record daily life, and to receive a sense of intimacy and stability through online relationships with others can also be a reason for increasing the use of SNS. In recent university education, the rapid increase in exchanges between professors and students using KakaoTalk or zoom seems to have been an important factor in increasing the use of easily accessible smartphones. In addition, college students have fewer restrictions on using smartphones at home than middle and high school students, and they have more time and money, so the utilization rate will be higher. In particular, nursing students have a lot of stress about heavy studies, clinical practice, careers and employment after graduation, and dating.
Nursing students may become vulnerable to SNS addiction when SNS activity using smartphones increases to avoid stress, so education and stress relief programs are needed to prevent this. There was no relationship between college students' ego-resilience and SNS addiction proneness. This is different from the research results of Song & Kim[15], in which ego-resilience and SNS addiction proneness were correlated with each other, and the same as that of Song[16]. Ego-resilience is known in previous studies as a factor that controls depression, anxiety, and impulsivity, which are factors close to SNS addiction proneness[17]. However, in this study of nursing students, it is necessary to study whether self-elasticity is not related to SNS addiction tendency is the characteristics of nursing students or general university students. Therefore, in future research, it is necessary to recruit targets by classifying groups for SNS addiction proneness in various ways, and conduct repeated investigations. In this study, adult attachment and ego-resilience had a negative relationship with each other. The higher the adult attachment level, the lower the ego-resilience, and the lower the adult attachment level, the higher the ego-resilience. In a study by Park et al.[18] in college students, adult attachment was found to have an effect on ego-resilience, which was the same as the result of this study. Adult attachment is defined as a representation of the outside world or others as including relationships with not only parents but also with various other people afterwards based on attachment in the early stages of development[19]. Therefore, stable relationship formation and attachment relationship can predict positive ego-resilience. As a result of conducting multiple regression analysis to determine the effect on SNS addiction proneness, general factors did not significantly affect SNS addiction proneness. This is different from the previous study[6], which showed differences in smartphone addiction according to age and sex, so it is necessary to study this through repeated studies later. In this study, adult attachment and ego-resilience were found to be important factors of SNS addiction proneness. The higher the degree of adult attachment, one of the factors influencing the SNS addiction proneness, the higher the social media addiction tendency, which is consistent with previous studies showing that the adult attachment of college students influences the SNS addiction proneness[7]. Specifically, anxiety attachment, a sub-factor of adult attachment, was found to have a significant influence on SNS addiction proneness. This means that the higher the level of anxiety attachment, the higher the tendency to addiction to SNS is, which is consistent with previous studies that have studied the anxiety attachment and SNS addiction proneness[16]. Targets with high attachment anxiety are likely to use SNS excessively to escape from alienation. Therefore, it is necessary to explore how the relationship in SNS can satisfy the target's desire to escape from alienation. In the course of counseling, it is necessary to create an atmosphere so that the subject can form meaningful and healthy relationships, and to provide opportunities to acquire and practice alternative strategies and techniques[20-22].
4. Conclusion
This study was a descriptive research study to understand the effect of nursing students' adult attachment and ego-resilience on SNS addiction proneness. The results of the questionnaire were collected from September 1, 2019 to September 20, 2019 from 200 nursing students in G-city. The collected data ware analyzed through descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation effectiveness, multiple linear regression using SPSS/WIN 23.0 Program. Looking at the main variables, the higher the adult attachment, the higher the SNS addiction proneness (r = .425, p <.001). Also, the higher adult attachment, the less ego-resilience (r =-. 293, p
<.001). But, there was no correlation between ego-resilience and SNS addiction proneness(r =-. 054, p = .446). In addition, adult attachment and ego-resilience (r =-. 293, p <.001) were found to decrease as adult attachment increased. However, (r =-. 054, p
= .446), there was no correlation between ego-resilience and SNS addiction proneness. The only factor affecting the satisfaction of social media addiction tendency was adult attachment. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop and consider a program that can protect SNS abuse in advance and cope with the tendency of SNS addiction proneness. The implications of this study are as follows.
First, this study is meaningful in confirming that adult attachment and ego-resilience are factors influencing SNS addiction proneness. Second, through this study, it was confirmed that the tendency of nursing college students to become addicted to SNS can be prevented and reduced, thereby reducing individual attachment and increasing ego-resilience. In order to lower the tendency of nursing college students to become addicted to SNS, universities should prepare programs to reduce adult attachment and increase ego-resilience, and research various measures for emotional support and stress relief.
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