Are you “phubbing” me? The Determinants of Phubbing Behavior and Assessment of Measurement Invariance across Sex Differences

Phubbing behavior is pervasive but the examination of the determinants and measurement invariance remain deficient. The present study aims to investigate: (1) relationships between Big Five personality traits (i.e., open-mindedness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality), coping styles (i.e., problem-focused and emotional-focused), Internet addiction and phubbing behavior; (2) the mediating role of Internet addiction among these relationships; and (3) measurement invariance across sex groups. A total of 405 responses were included in the final analyses. Participants were sampled using a probability-proportionate-to-size (PPS) method. Data were collected using paper-and-pencil survey: Phubbing Scale, Internet Addiction Test, Big Five Inventory, and Simplified Coping Styles Questionnaire. Negative emotionality, open-mindedness, and Internet addiction were the significant determinants of phubbing behavior. Internet addiction partially mediates open-mindedness and phubbing behavior. As for measurement invariance across sex groups, conscientiousness, extraversion, negative emotionality, Internet addiction, and phubbing behavior constructs achieved full measurement invariance. The agreeableness construct showed partial measurement invariance. Three constructs (i.e., open-mindedness, problem-focused and emotional-focused coping) failed to achieve partial measurement invariance, signifying that male and female participants had different interpretations on the items of these constructs. This pervasive culture could be gradually weakened if in-person interaction is intensely promoted

Holistic Technological Addiction of Modern Age: Phubbing

Recently, technology addiction and its types are one of the biggest problem areas of today's people. These types of issues have primarily gained a new dimension with the development of the smartphone while internet and gaming addiction and social media addiction. Individuals have become able to access all technological services at any time thanks to their smartphones. In the following period, a new problem area, called smartphone addiction, has been created with the improvements in smartphone technology and the intensity of usage of individuals. After these developments, it has been seen that smartphone addiction affects the social communication of people negatively and individuals focus on their smartphones instead of communicating in social environments. For this situation, which is difficult to explain by smartphone addiction, the concept of phubbing, which consists of the words phone and the word snubbing, has been developed. In this study, it is aimed to contribute to the related literature by explaining the components and dynamics of phubbing concept, internet addiction, game addiction, social media addiction, smartphone addiction, fear of abductions, nomophobia and netlessphobia