Correlates of Psychological Distress and Smartphone Addiction, Among University Students at Africa International University, Karen, Nairobi County, Kenya

Smartphones have become an essential part of our everyday lives and young people access the internet for various reasons. Many University students are faced with psychological distress and to cope with these stresses they become addicted to their smartphones. The objective of the study was to correlate psychological distress and smartphone addiction among students at Africa International University. The study proposed the use of the I-PACE model of addiction and looked at the development together with the sustenance of addictive use of internet applications. The research employed a descriptive correlational design, which is a quantitative approach to collect data. Purposive sampling a nonprobability sampling technique was employed to sample the respondents. The target population was university students, and a sample size of 333 students aged 17-40 years was engaged. Data was collected by use of questionnaires as well as SAS-SV and DASS 21 instruments. Correlation and linear regression tests were performed to test the relationships between psychological distress and smartphones. Psychological distress had a positive and significant effect on smartphone addiction among university students (β=0.674, p=0.000). This suggests that psychological distress increases smartphone addiction among university students. The study recommends that course instructors should be trained to assess and refer students who exhibit symptoms of smartphone use to the counseling department for help. Higher learning institutions should periodically conduct training or workshops to create awareness of the impact of psychological distress in relation to smartphone addiction among university students. It is important to promote strategies to reduce psychological distress to avoid the harmful consequences of smartphone addiction.