Quality of Parent-child Communication, Self-esteem, and

Smartphone Addiction on Generation Z Adolescent

Milka Malva Rohi, Danny Ontario Rusmono, Livianinda Nur Malicha, Dyah Novrina Purnama,

Annisa Taqwa Zazi and Achmad Chusairi

Faculty of Psychology Airlangga University Jalan Airlangga No. 4-6, Surabaya, 60115, Indonesia

Keywords: Smartphone Addiction, Parent-child Communication Quality, Self-esteem, Adolescent High School

Students.

Abstract: Teenagers today often own and use smartphones, but uncontrolled excessive use can put a risk of smartphone

addiction. This study aimed to determine the correlation between the quality of parent-child communication

and Self-esteem with the smartphone addiction on Z-generation teenagers in high school (High School)

groups. This research uses a quantitative approach. The sampling technic of this research is purposive

sampling. Subjects in this research are 100 high school students aged 15-18 years. Data collection is done by

survey method using a questionnaire. Measuring instruments used in this study include: SAS-SV (Short

Version of Smartphone Addiction Scale) to measure smartphone addiction, communication quality scale of

parent and children developed by researchers based on communication quality theory from De Vito, and

SLSC-R (Self-Liking and Self-Competance Scale Revised) to measure Self-esteem. Data analysis using

correlation test with SPSS 22.0 for Windows. The results showed that there was no significant correlation

between the quality of parent-child communication with smartphone addiction and Self-esteem with

smartphone addiction.

1 INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is a period of human development

which includes biological, psychological, and social

maturity as a transition from childhood to adulthood.

Today's teenagers generally belong to generation Z,

which was born since 1998 (Tapscott, 2008). In the

process, adolescents are often overwhelmed by great

curiosity so that adolescents explore their world

and it is a form of searching for identity.

In the era of generation Z teenagers, the use of

smartphones or smart cellular phones facilitated by

various applications and the internet, has grown with

the influence of globalization, including in

Indonesia. Smartphones provide several

conveniences for teenagers, such as fast access to

information and can make people able to have

communication with peers, family, and the wider

community, even in a long distance. With the

internet in it, people can access several social media

platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Line,

Instragam, and others.

The Association of Indonesian Internet Service

Providers (APJII), stated that internet users in 2017

reached 143.26 million people (Setiawan, 2018).

This shows that more than half of Indonesia's

population has used the internet, including

teenagers. Data from the Nielsen survey institute

(2014) shows that the average smartphone use in

Indonesia is 189 minutes per day or about three

hours.

Common Sense Media (a non-profit organization

focused on helping children, parents, teachers and

policy makers with media and technology in

America), which conducted research in 2016 in San

Francisco, California, found that 50% of teens admit

to gadget addiction. The study involved 1.240

parent- children, ages 12 to 18 years. The result is

that 66% of parents feel their teens spend too much

time on gadgets, and 52% of these teens agree with

this.

Firmana (2016) in a study on the use and

utilization of smartphones among high school

students, stated that the level of smartphone

ownership among students can be categorized as

very high. In addition, teens especially the high

school students also use several social media

320

Rohi, M., Rusmono, D., Malicha, L., Purnama, D., Zazi, A. and Chusairi, A.

Quality of Parent-child Communication, Self-esteem, and Smartphone Addiction on Generation Z Adolescent.

DOI: 10.5220/0010812000003347

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Psychological Studies (ICPsyche 2021), pages 320-326

ISBN: 978-989-758-580-7

applications to exchange information such as sharing

subject matter, asking for schedules, and related to

school activities through various application

features. However, the use of smartphones does not

mean that it always has a positive impact on students

in their adolescence.

Research conducted by Muflih, Hamzah, &

Puniawan (2017) shows that there is a significant

correlation between smartphone use and smartphone

addiction. Hovart (Riani, 2016) states that

dependence or what is termed addiction is an

activity or substance that is carried out repeatedly

and can have a negative impact which is

characterized by high intensity on smartphone use,

unable to control smartphone use, feelings of anxiety

and restlessness appear when not using smartphones,

as well as social relationships with the environment

and those closest to them have problems.

The existence of smartphone addiction can have

an impact on psychological problems. A news report

from Liputan 6 on January 2018 informed that

smartphone addiction caused two students who were

still in junior high and high school to enter a mental

hospital in Bondowoso, East Java. The two students

were taken for treatment to the Mental Polyclinic of

RSUD Koesnadi Bondowoso by their parents

because they experienced drastic personality

changes, such as not wanting to go to school for

several months, and hurting themselves when asked

to take off their gadgets.

Agusta (2016) in his research on the risk factors

for smartphone addiction in adolescents found that

there are four factors that influence smartphone

addiction, such as external factors, situational

factors, social factors, and internal factors. Some of

these factors, namely external factors that explain the

influence of media on exposure to smartphones and

the various facilities provided, situational factors

that explain where a person feels comfortable when

using smartphones both in their own and in groups,

as well as social and internal factors which will be

explained in more detail below.

Social factors have aspects of individual needs in

social interaction. Although it creates its own fun, the

presence of smartphones makes teenagers often

focus more on smartphones than communicating with

those around them. Effendy (2003) states that

essentially interpersonal communication is

communication between communicators (the person

who delivers the information) and communicants

(the person who receives the information), where this

type of communication is considered the most

effective in an effort to change a person's attitude,

opinion or behavior. With the dialogical nature of

communication in the form of conversation, the

communicator can know the quality of the

communication, that is, if the communication is

positive or negative.

In the dynamics of communication, adolescents

according to research from Bukowski, Motzoi, &

Meyer, 2009; Laursen & Pursell, 2009 (Santrock

2012), are more dependent on their peers than their

parents. One of the characteristics of adolescence is

wanting freedom from adults. However, adolescents

are not directly independent without parents, but it is

the attachment of parents that can increase the

possibility of adolescents having good social skills

(Santrock, 2012).

Based on Cho & Lee (2017), the role of parents,

such as self-reflection from parents, is needed to

counteract the negative effects of smartphone use on

children. According to Kwak, Kim, and Yoon

(2018), parental neglect is significantly associated

with dependence or excessive use of smartphones

among adolescents. Misaghi, et al (2018) in their

research on family functioning accompanied by a

generation gap also showed a significant negative

correlation with smartphone addiction. Another study

by Chasanah and Kilis (2018) on the effect of gadget

addiction on family functioning shows that gadget

addiction also affects family functioning, but its

effect on communication aspects is smaller than

other aspects.

Internal factors describe individual

characteristics and are the factors that most influence

smartphone addiction. Internal factors have three

aspects, namely weak self-control, high sensation-

seeking nature, and low self- esteem.

As smartphones generally contain social media

that can expand friendships or kinship with other

people in cyberspace, teenagers become interested in

using smartphones. This is done in order to get an

increase in Self-esteem and existence in the

community because many of today's generation Z

teenagers also have smartphones. According to a

teenager digital observer, Peg Streep (in Felita et al.,

2016) suggests that the basic reason why teenagers

become social media maniacs is because they want to

seek attention, ask for opinions, grow their image,

and morever they are already addicted or become

dependent on smartphone use. From the results of

a survey conducted by Felita et al (2016) who tried

to examine adolescent self-concept and use of social

media, most teenagers want to look good and display

an image of their ideal self-concept (ideal-self) on

their social media profiles, even though it is not in

accordance with their real self-concept (real-self)

they have.

Quality of Parent-child Communication, Self-esteem, and Smartphone Addiction on Generation Z Adolescent

321

The incompatibility of adolescent self- concept

with their ideal self will cause low self- esteem.

According to Tafarodi and Swann (1995), there are

two dimensions of Self-esteem, such as self-liking

and self-competence. Self- liking is an evaluation of

one's own experience in social interactions, which

can be good or bad, while self-comptence is also an

evaluation about self-experience regarding the

results of the efforts or pratices someone made

(Harre, in Tafarodi and Swann, 1995). A teenager

with low Self-esteem tries to improve his self-image,

one of which is by using a smartphone to access social

media as it has been mentioned that teenagers

actually need support from others to feel more

valued (Kurcaburun in Mulyana and Arifani, 2017).

According to the research conducted by Ehrenberg

et al (2008), people with low Self-esteem will more

often use social media to write messages. Research

by Kim (2016) and Mulyana and Arifani (2017) also

proves that there is a negative correlation between

Self-esteem and smartphone addiction, in which the

lower the Self-esteem of a teenager, the higher the

tendency for smartphone addiction.

From other studies, such as that conducted by

Pugh (2017), it was found that Self-esteem did not

have a significant correlation with smartphone

addiction. Shaw and Gant (in Pugh, 2017) through

their research in 2002 also found contradictory

research results, that internet addiction was actually

positively related to Self-esteem and this was

explained to be related to a person's reduced sense of

loneliness.

Smartphone addiction in this study is explained

as a condition in which a person cannot be separated

from his/her smartphone. Smartphone addiction can

occur because of using them too often, which begins

with the stage of habituation to create a

dependence.

Kwon et al (Mulyana & Afriani, 2017)

developed smartphone addiction or dependence on

smartphones measured in five aspects, namely daily-

life disturbance (interruption of daily activities),

withdrawal (not being able to stay away from

smartphones because of anxiety, including feeling

uncomfortable when disturbed). while playing

smartphones), cyberspace-oriented relationship

(socializing more with smartphones), overuse

(excessive and uncontrolled use), and tolerance

(failure to control smartphone use).

The quality of communication in this study

focuses on the quality of interpersonal

communication (parent-child), namely the process of

delivering messages through conversations that

occur between parents and children. Parents need to

make sure the communication takes place in a

positive way which is related to interpersonal

communication. De Vito (Marthiani, 2015) states

that interpersonal communication is the process of

sending and receiving messages between two people

or a small group of people with various impacts and

opportunities to provide immediate feedback.

Effendy (2003) states that essentially interpersonal

communication is a communication between

communicators and communicants, where this type

of communication is considered the most effective in

an effort to change one's attitudes, opinions or

behavior, because it has a dialogical nature in the

form of conversation. When communicating, the

communicator knows for sure whether the

communication is positive or negative, and

successful or not. This happens when the

communicator gives the communicant the opportunity

to ask as widely as possible. De Vito (1997) states

that communication quality has five dimensions,

namely openness, empathy, supportiveness,

positiveness, and equality. Openess indicates that

someone has a willingness to open his/her self so

that he/she can receive suggestions or information

from others. Emphaty can be seen from the activeness

in accompanying, being concentrated, and giving

physical contact with the person. Supportiveness

indicates the attitude in interpersonal relationship

that can motivate someone when it needed.

Positiveness is a person's tendency to be able to act

based on good judgment between communicators

and communicants. Meanwhile, equality indicates

that both communicators and communicans have

awereness that they are equally valuable and need

each other.

Baron, Byrne, & Branscombe (Sarwono &

Meinarno, 2011) state that self- esteem shows the

overall attitude that a person has, both positive and

negative. Lerner and Spanier (Ghufron & Risnawita,

2011) argue that Self-esteem is the level of

assessment given by individuals to themselves, both

in positive and negative assessments which are then

associated with the individual's self-concept.

This research needs to be done to determine the

correlation between the quality of parent-child

communication as a factor of interpersonal

interaction in the family and self- esteem as a

personal factor in answering the phenomenon of

smartphone addiction among generation Z teenagers,

especially high school students. Here is a theoretical

concept to explain this study.

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

322

Figure 1: Theoretical Concept.

Hypothesis

● H

: there is no correlation between the quality of

parent-child communication and Self-esteem

with smartphone addiction on adolescents of

generation Z

● H

: there is a correlation the quality of parent-

child communication and self- esteem with

smartphone addiction on adolescents of

generation Z

2 METHOD

This study uses a quantitative approach, in which

researches conduct a survey to get the data. The

sampling technique used was purposive sampling.

Researchers used a questionnaire to measure

each variable. The questionnaire consisted of open

and closed nature, which can be done directly by the

research subject. The questionnaire was also

accompanied by a consent form at the beginning. In

an open questionnaire, research subjects were asked

to fill in their personal data and answer essay

questions according to their circumstances. While in

a closed questionnaire (scale), the research subject

will be asked to choose one of the alternative

answers that have been provided in the form of

numbers to represent the situation that suits him/her.

The subjects in this study were 100 teenagers

(aged 15-18 years) who were students of class X, XI,

and XII SMA Trimurti Surabaya. At Trimurti High

School there are 24 classes, namely 8 classes for

class X, 4 classes for class XI IPA, 4 classes for class

XI IPS, 5 classes for class XII IPA, and 3 classes for

class XII IPS with an average number of students

reaching 40 in every class. Of the 24 classes, 6

classes will be taken, namely 2 classes in class X, 2

classes in class XI (IPA/IPS), and 2 classes in class

XII (IPA/IPS). For class X, 37 subjects were

obtained, class XI was 33 people, and class XII was

30 people. Of the 100 students, there were 52 boys

and 48 girls.

The quality of parent-child communication is

measured by a multidimensional scale based on the

operational definition of interpersonal

communication quality according to De Vito which

has five dimensions, such as openess, emphaty,

supportiveness, positiveness, and equality.

Researchers created a new scale with a total of 42

items, which included the five aspects of

communication quality according to De Vito in the

context of parent-child. The reliability of the test

results of the questionnaire with 38 respondents

showed the Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.915. The

assessment is based on 4 answer choices (STS =

strongly disagree, TS = not suitable, S = suitable, SS

= very suitable). The higher the total score, the higher

the quality of communication between parents and

children, and vice versa.

The scale used to measure Self-esteem is the

Revised Self Liking and Self Competence Scale

(SLSC-R) developed by Tafarodi and Swann (1995).

Based on Tafarodi & Swann (1995), Self-esteem in

this study is measured in 2 dimensions, namely self-

liking (our affective assessment of ourselves,

approval or disapproval of ourselves) and self-

competence (assessment of each individual self

experience as a result of the exercises that have been

done). SLSC-R contains 16 favorable and

unfavorable items with two dimensions, namely

self-liking and self-competence, and there are five

answer choices (1 = very unsuitable, up to 5 =

very suitable). The value of Cronbach's Alpha SLSC-

R reached 0.90 and after the research process in the

field, the reliability of the SLSC-R showed

Cronbach's Alpha value of 0.734 by removing eight

unfavorable items. Self-esteem scores based on

measurements with the SLSC-R through the total

score. The higher the total score, the higher the

Self-esteem, and vice versa. The smartphone

addiction scale was measured using the

Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version (SAS-

SV) developed by Kwon et al (2013). SAS-SV is a

unidimensional scale and has 10 favorable items.

The value of Cronbach's Alpha SAS-SV is 0.911

and after the research process in the field, the

reliability of the SAS-SV shows the value of

Cronbach's Alpha 0.758. The assessment is based on

5 answer choices (1 = strongly disagree, up to 5 =

strongly agree). Smartphone addiction score based

on measurement with SAS-SV through total score.

Quality of Parent-child Communication, Self-esteem, and Smartphone Addiction on Generation Z Adolescent

323

The higher the total score, the higher the subject's

dependence on smartphones, and vice versa.

3 RESULT

3.1 Level of Smartphone Addiction

From the results of descriptive statistics, it was

found that the average smartphone addiction of Z

generation teenagers in SMA Trimurti Surabaya was

28.19 with a standard deviation (SD) of 6.8. The

average quality of parent-child communication is

127.65 with a standard deviation of 17.22. The

average Self-esteem is 29.37 with a standard

deviation of 4.67.

Table 1: Smartphone Addiction Category.

Category

Percent

x > 34.04 High 14 14%

24.70 ≤ x ≤

34.04

Moderate 72 72%

x < 24.7 Low 14 14%

Based on the Self-esteem category description table

above, it can be seen that out of 100 research

subjects, there are similarities in the percentage

between students with high and low Self-esteem, as

many as 14 students (14%) have high and low Self-

esteem, and 72 other students (72%) have moderate

Self-esteem.

3.4 Correlation of Quality of

Parent-child Communication and

Self-esteem with Smartphone

Addiction

Based on the results of the normality assumption test

through Kolmogorov Smirnov where the

significance value is said to meet the normal data

requirements if (sig) > 0.05, the data distribution

from the smartphone addiction measurement is not

normal (sig 0.047 < 0.05), the data distribution from

the parent-child communication quality

measurement is normal (sig 0.095 > 0.05), and the

distribution of data from Self-esteem measurements

was not normal (sig 0.027 < 0.05). Therefore, the

researcher used non-parametric statistical analysis.

Table 4: Correlation Analysis.

Variable Sig. r (Spearman) Status

– Y 0.703 - 0.039 Not

significant

correlate

– Y 0.603 0.053 Not

significant

correlate

Muliple

correlation: X

– Y

R = 0.051

multiple

correlation

Based on the table of non-parametric correlation

test results, the correlation between X1 (the quality

of parent-child communication) and Y (smartphone

addiction) shows that the correlation between X1

and Y is -0.039 with a significance level of 0.703 (p

ICPsyche 2021 - International Conference on Psychological Studies

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> 0.05), which indicates that there is no correlation

There is a significant correlation between the quality

of parent-child communication with smartphone

addiction. The negative sign indicates that the

correlation between the quality of parent-child

communication is negative, that is, if the quality of

parent-child communication is high, the level of

smartphone addiction in children is low, and vice

versa.

The correlation between X2 and Y is 0.053

with a significance level of 0.603 (p > 0.05) which

means that H

is accepted and Ha is rejected, so it can

be said that there is no significant correlation

between Self-esteem and smartphone addiction. With

multiple correlation analysis, an R value of 0.051

was also obtained, which means that there is no

correlation between the quality of parent-child

communication and Self-esteem with smartphone

addiction on Generation Z teenagers of high school

students.

4 DISCUSSION

A non-significant correlation between the quality of

parent-child communication with smartphone

addiction, indicating other different findings. This

study reveals that social factors, such as interactions

in the family that involve the quality of parent-child

communication, are not always associated with

smartphone addiction.

Research on family functioning belonging to

Habibi, Danesh, and Mazandarani (2015) explains

that although family functioning is related to

internet addiction, which if family functioning is

poor then the level of internet addiction is high,

but the correlation coefficient of communication

aspects in family functioning is very small and not

significant. As discussed in the introduction section,

Chasanah and Kilis (2018) research which states the

weak influence seen from the relative contribution

) of the communication aspect in the functioning

of families with gadget or smartphone addiction,

shows that other factors such as affective

responses, roles, and control behavior related to

various situations in the family also contributed more

to the decrease in smartphone addiction. This allows

parental supervision in the use of smartphones in

children can be quite related and have influence. On

the other hand, the non-significant correlation

between Self-esteem and smartphone addiction on

Generation Z high school students indicates that

this study supports the previous findings stated by

Pugh (2017). According to Pugh, low Self-esteem is

not always associated with high levels of

smartphone addiction. Through a review of the

previous literature, Pugh revealed the results of

research by Shaw and Gunt (2002) which

explained that high Self-esteem is actually

associated with a high level of smartphone

addiction. This is due to the loneliness factor, which

when someone experiences loneliness, there is a

tendency for low Self-esteem. With the use of

smartphones to access social media intensely, a

person feels they receive social support (perceived

social support), and according to research results,

the tendency of loneliness is reduced so that Self-

esteem increases along with the intensity of

smartphone use.

5 CONCLUSION

Based on the results of data analysis, it can be

concluded that there is no significant correlation

between the quality of parent-child communication

and Self-esteem with smartphone addiction on high

school students who are the adolescents of

generation Z. There are another factors which can be

stronger predictors for smartphone addiction on

adolescents, as mentioned that smartphone addiction

can be caused by four main factors, such as external

factors, situational factors, social factors, and

internal factors, while the quality of parent-child

communication is a part of social factors, and Self-

esteem is a part of internal factors.

For further researchers, through this research, it

is hoped that other attributes will be considered for

research with similar themes, for adolescents who

have a tendency to be dependent on smartphones so

that they can control the intensity of smartphone use

and sort out more positive activities in using

smartphones, then for parents to pay attention and

improve the quality of their communication.

positively with children so that parents can play a

more role in directing the use of smartphones wisely

in children.

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