Varsity Sports to Combat Smartphone Addiction among University Students

Abstract

This study compared high exercise group with low exercise group to assess the influence of physical activity on smartphone addiction in early adult university students as it was the primary aim of the study. The final sample size comprised of 330 participants from five universities, out of which 165 were university level student-athletes and 165 were university level non-athlete students. To analyze and investigate the relationships between relevant variables, this study employed cross-sectional design of study. The short version IPAQ, SAS, and demographic information were utilized to collect data. It was revealed by t-test analysis that the mean score of smartphone addiction for low exercising group was considerably greater than high exercising group. These findings indicated that exercise can lessen smartphone addiction as athletes demonstrated minor smartphone addiction tendencies compared to non-athletes. These findings also suggested a potential protective role of physical activity against smartphone addiction.