Association between digital addiction subtype and emotional intelligence among preservice teachers in Ghana

Abstract

There has been an increase in studies investigating the impact of technology on human mental health in recent years. Although DA and emotional intelligence are issues of reference among university preservice teachers, the relationship between these phenomena has yet to be studied. This study examined the relationship between digital addiction subtypes estimated with Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire Short Form (PIUS-SF-9) and emotional intelligence estimated with the Brief Emotional Intelligence Scale-10 (BEIS-10). 220 preservice teachers between the ages of 18 to 24 years completed self-report scales to measure these factors. The results illustrated that all the digital addiction subtypes were negatively associated with the dimensions of emotional intelligence. Furthermore, the subtypes of digital addiction were significant predictors of emotional intelligence, explaining 35.9% of the total variance (R2 = 0.359). Besides, smartphone addiction was the strongest predictor of emotional intelligence, 28.3% total variance explained (R2 = 0.283). These results indicate that emotional intelligence is a unique resource which has a critical protective function against the vulnerability of digital addiction in preservice teachers. Digital addiction prevention implications are highlighted.