Factors affecting phubbing of students in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

This study proposes a structural model of the relationships among fear of COVID-19 (FOC), fear of missing out (FOMO), and phubbing by two factors, communication disturbance (CD) and phone obsession (FO), to explore how these factors affect each other. University students in Vietnam were randomly selected to participate in the study’s questionnaire. In this research, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to test the validity of the constructs together with analysis of moment structure (AMOS). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the significance of the proposed hypothesis model. Results of the relationships among FOC, FOMO, CD, and FO were revealed. Specifically, FOC and FOMO were found to have a positive impact on phubbing by two factors: CD and FO. Besides, FOC was found to be positively related to FOMO. The research reveals that FOC has the most impact on phubbing, followed by FOMO. From the research results, the study proposes some solutions to reduce phubbing for students and recommendations for their families.