BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH USE OF SMARTPHONE BY MALE AND FEMALE CHRISTIAN UNDERGRADUATES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF JOS, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the behavioral problems associated with use of Smartphone by male and female Christian undergraduates in the University of Jos, Nigeria. The population for the study was 2500 two hundred level students in the Faculty of Education of the university. 264 respondents were purposively sampled for the study. Students that made up the sample for the study were the Christians who had phones that could access the internet. The instrument designed by Omede in 2023 titled “Level of Knowledge and Involvement in Behavioral problems associated with use of Smartphone (LOKIBPAUS)” was adapted for use. Section B of the instrument was ignored while sections Aand C were used. The instrument was administered by the two researchers in two separate classes during one of the lectures on Education 202. The data collected were analyzed and findings included that the male Christian respondents had higher moral and social behavioral problems than the female Christian respondents. Conversely, the female Christian respondents had higher religious behavioral problems than their male counterparts. The result of the test of the null hypotheses revealed a significant difference between the male and the female Christian respondents only in social behavioral problems. But in all, apart from the social behavioral problems that the male Christian respondents had high engagement, engagements in the remaining two variables were low for these two categories of respondents. Based on the findings, recommendations that addressed the roles of Christian parents, church pastors and elders, Christian teachers and lecturers as well as the Christian students were put forward to include that Christian parents should be actively involved in monitoring the online behaviors of their children particularly the undergraduates and educate them about the use of social media in more decent and godly ways and that church pastors and elders should not minimize church teachings and periodic sermons on holiness and righteousness while the Christian teachers and lecturers are to mentor and disciple the Christian students to live like their master, the Lord Jesus Christ