Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of
Ego-Resilience between Peer Attachment and Mobile Phone Dependency in late
adolescence.
Methods: The participants were 2056 third year high school adolescents (1,041
boys and 1,015 girls) from the Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS), a national
representative of Korean Children and adolescence. Hierarchical Regression was
used for data analysis.
Results: First, the correlation between peer attachment, ego-resilience and mobile
phone dependency were all significant. Second, ego-resilience takes the role of
moderator for mobile phone dependency. In detail, ego-resilience relieves the
mobile phone dependency caused by ‘peer relationships' or ‘conflict in peer
relationships.
Conclusion/Implications: Ego-resilience was found to control the relationship
between peer attachment and mobile phone dependency. Therefore, in order to
lower the dependence of mobile phones in adolescents with low peer attachment,
a program that can enhance ego-resilience is needed.