Nomofobia en Padres de Familia y Comunicación Familiar

Abstract

Nomophobia, defined as the irrational fear of not being able to use or losing access to one's mobile phone, has become a problem in modern society, which can have repercussions on various aspects of personal and family life. The objective of the research is to evaluate the influence of nomophobia on parents in family communication. To this end, a quantitative, descriptive and correlational methodology was used, which was developed with 209 parents and 209 students from the Pedro Vicente Maldonado Unified General Baccalaureate Educational Unit. To study the variable of nomophobia, the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMPQ) by Yildirim and Correia was used, consisting of 20 items divided into four dimensions. the Family Communication Scale created by Barnes and Olson was applied to the family communication variable. This scale consists of two subscales that measure the degree of openness and the magnitude of family communication problems and comprises 20 items for parents and 20 items for children. Among the main results, it is noteworthy that the level of nomophobia in parents indicates the existence of an initial and moderate dependence on mobile devices, since mild and moderate levels of nomophobia are established as the most prevalent in the parents in the study. With regard to the quality of family communication between parents and children, it is considered moderate, since both parties maintain acceptable communication, with both parents and children considering themselves to be good listeners. However, there are certain barriers to communication, which is why the influence of nomophobia in parents does not constitute a factor that interferes with family communication, since despite the fact that parents show minimal dependence, there is adequate communication between parents and children.