Investigation of the Relationship Between University Students' Nomophobia and Psychological Distress: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: This study investigated the relationship between nomophobia, psychological distress, and demographic factors among students. Methods: This cross-sectional study used a convenience sampling approach to collect data from 723 respondents. The study participants were university students from the University of Ha'il. Distress factors were measured as dependent variables using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS)-21, while nomophobia was the independent variable measured using the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q). The relationships were assessed using Pearson's correlation, whereas the relationship power of these factors was assessed using hierarchical regression. Results: The study results revealed that four dimensions of nomophobia were significantly correlated with depression, anxiety, stress, and overall DASS-21 scores (p < 0.01). Additionally, nomophobia was significantly associated with distress factors (depression: β = 0.11, p-value < 0.01, anxiety: β = 0.11, p-value < 0.01, stress: β = 0.08, p-value < 0.01). Mobile usage was also significantly associated with the same distress factors (depression: β = 1.67, p-value < 0.01, anxiety: β = 1.65, p-value < 0.01, stress: β = 1.65, p-value < 0.01). Additionally, gender was associated with anxiety (β = 2.75, p-value < 0.01,). Conclusion: Nomophobia significantly exacerbates distress and is a leading cause of stress, anxiety, and depression. The study found that high mobile phone use significantly contributes to psychological distress, which leads to low academic performance, which-in turn-further increases distress.