abstract
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Nomophobia
is
considered
a
modern
age
phobia
introduced
to
our
lives
as
a
byproduct
of
the
interaction
between
people
and
mobile
information
and
communication
technologies
,
especially
smartphones
.
This
study
sought
to
contribute
to
the
nomophobia
research
literature
by
identifying
and
describing
the
dimensions
of
nomophobia
and
developing
a
questionnaire
to
measure
nomophobia
.
Consequently
,
this
study
adopted
a
two
-
phase
,
exploratory
sequential
mixed
methods
design
.
The
first
phase
was
a
qualitative
exploration
of
nomophobia
through
semi
-
structured
interviews
conducted
with
nine
undergraduate
students
at
a
large
Midwestern
university
in
the
U
.
S
.
As
a
result
of
the
first
phase
,
four
dimensions
of
nomophobia
were
identified
:
not
being
able
to
communicate
,
losing
connectedness
,
not
being
able
to
access
information
and
giving
up
convenience
.
The
qualitative
findings
from
this
initial
exploration
were
then
developed
into
a
20
-
item
nomophobia
questionnaire
(
NMP
-
Q
).
In
the
second
phase
,
the
NMP
-
Q
was
validated
with
a
sample
of
301
undergraduate
students
.
Exploratory
factor
analysis
revealed
a
four
-
factor
structure
for
the
NMP
-
Q
,
corresponding
to
the
dimensions
of
nomophobia
.
The
NMP
-
Q
was
shown
to
produce
valid
and
reliable
scores
;
and
thus
,
can
be
used
to
assess
the
severity
of
nomophobia