The Correlation between Cell Phone over Use and Aggression

Abstract

<strong>Introduction</strong>: Today concerns about the somatic and mental-emotional effects of exposure to electromagnetic waves have been raised. Although early thermal effects can not be attributed to these waves, It is necessary to investigate the long-term and side effects of these waves. One of the devices that has the most connection with electromagnetic waves is cell phones. In the present study, the correlation between excessive use of mobile phones and agression in students was investigated. <strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> This study was conducted with the participation of 810 students of Arak University of Medical Sciences. At first, demographic information was obtained, then the mobile phone dependence was measured by the use of "Cell Phone Over-Use Scale (COS)". AGQ questionnaire was used to measure aggression, in which four subscales of physical aggression (PA), verbal aggression (VA), anger (A), and hostility (H) were studied. The survey of both questionnaires was based on Likert scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS20 software, Chi-Square, t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient at a significant level of 0.05. <strong>Results:</strong> The average score of the COS and physical aggression (PA), verbal aggression (VA), anger (A), and hostility (H), was (54.10 ± 16.10), (18.23 ± 3.12), (12.56 ± 3.65), (17.45 ± 5.26), (14.9 ± 4.42) Which had no significant difference between men and women(p≥0.05). Also, Pearson correlation test showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between all AGQ components and excessive use (P <0.01). <strong>Conclusion:</strong> However, Thermal effects for 900 Mhz electromagnetic waves can not be considered. Two important factors that can be considered in related research include the late effects and mental-psychological effects. In this research, excessive use of mobile phones has been shown to have a direct positive correlation with the increase in agression and its associated components.