The predictive roles of social anxiety, stress, and boredom proneness on smartphone addiction among university students in Malaysia

Soong, Samantha Jia Yie and Vaneesha Sauvilei, Visvanathan (2025) The predictive roles of social anxiety, stress, and boredom proneness on smartphone addiction among university students in Malaysia. Final Year Project, UTAR.

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Abstract

In Malaysia, smartphone addiction has become a significant issue, with the country ranking third worldwide in prevalence. University students are especially vulnerable, given their extensive use of smartphones for academic, social, and personal purposes. Excessive smartphone reliance has been linked to psychological factors such as social anxiety, stress, and boredom proneness. However, limited research has explored how these variables contribute to smartphone addiction within the Malaysian context. Thus, the present study aimed to explore the predictive roles of social anxiety, stress, and boredom proneness on smartphone addiction among Malaysian university students, guided by the Compensatory Internet Use Theory (CIUT). A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed, and data were collected through an online survey. A total of 113 participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The inclusion criteria required participants to be (i) Malaysian undergraduates, (ii) aged between 18 and above, and (iii) smartphone users. It was hypothesised that social anxiety, stress, and boredom proneness would positively predict smartphone addiction. The findings revealed that social anxiety and boredom proneness positively predicted smartphone addiction, whereas stress was not a significant predictor. These findings extend the application of CIUT by highlighting its relevance to social anxiety and boredom proneness, but its limitations in explaining stress. The study contributes to the literature on digital well-being and provides practical implications for educators, policymakers, and mental health professionals to design interventions that reduce overreliance on smartphones through addressing underlying psychological factors.

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