The Impact of Covid-19 on Dental Hygiene and Students' Academic Self-Efficacy Loneliness on Smartphone Overdependence

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the relationships between smartphone addiction, academic self-efficacy, and loneliness among dental hygienist students and use the findings as a basic data to prevent the students’ smartphone addiction. Methods: A total of 232 dental hygienist students attending to School of Dentistry in Seoul, Gyeonggi, or Chungcheong were included in this study. Results: The results of the study showed that loneliness (β=0.202) was contributing the most to the dental hygienist students’ smartphone addiction, followed by academic self-efficacy (β=0.196) and self-reported smartphone addiction (β=-0.178). Conclusions: Further research is recommended on investigation of various factors that influence smartphone addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic, development of counselling centres for the dental hygienist students, and personalized counselling program for prevention of smartphone addiction.