The aim of the present study is to analyze the prevalence of phubbing among university students, as well as the existence of significant differences as a function of specific sociodemographic variables (such as gender, age, academic performance, and connection frequency), and lastly, the predictive capacity of these elements with the different levels of phubbing experienced. The sample was composed of 1121 Spanish university students, and the instrument selected for the collection of data was the Phubbing Scale, which was divided into three factors: “attachment to the mobile phone”, “communication disturbance”, and “smartphone obsession”, through different validity and reliability tests. The results indicated a moderately high prevalence of phubbing among the population studied. Likewise, statistically significant differences were identified at a multivariate level in the three dimensions. Lastly, it is notable that the frequency of smartphone use significantly and positively predicted the three dimensions of phubbing, which implies that students who invest more time using mobile phones are more likely to become a phubber. Gender is identified as a mediating or contextual variable, and its effect differs as a function of the dimension.
Carril et al. (Mon,) studied this question.