ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1638959
This article is part of the Research TopicMental Health Dynamics for Vulnerable Populations in the Digital Era: Opportunities and ChallengesView all 6 articles
Digital Literacy, Phubbing, and Mental Well-being in the Digital Age: A Study on Young University Athletes
Provisionally accepted
- 1Mersin University, Mersin, Türkiye
- 2Selcuk Universitesi, Konya, Türkiye
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Digital literacy has now emerged as a pivotal determinant of individuals' social, psychological, and mental responses in contemporary society. This study examined the relationships between digital literacy, phubbing behaviors, and mental well-being among young university athletes. The sample consisted of 224 students (mean age = 20.91; SD = 1.98) from the sports sciences faculty of a state university, including 109 females (48.7%) and 115 males (51.3%), who participated voluntarily. Three validated measurement instruments were employed, with confirmatory factor analysis conducted to establish scale reliability and validity. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis to explore variable relationships within the research model. Correlation analysis detected a significant positive moderate relationship between digital literacy and mental wellbeing (r = .363), alongside a significant negative weak correlation between digital literacy and self-isolation, a phubbing sub-dimension (r =-.133). Regression analyses demonstrated that digital literacy significantly predicts both mental well-being (β =.363) and phubbing-related self-isolation (β = -.133). The findings imply that enhanced digital literacy may mitigate phubbing behaviors while simultaneously promoting mental well-being among young athletes. The implications for digital citizenship education and athlete development programs should be discussed.
Keywords: Digital Literacy, Phubbing, Mental well-being, young university athletes, Sport
Received: 31 May 2025; Accepted: 22 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 ÖZSARI and TEK. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tolga TEK, Selcuk Universitesi, Konya, Türkiye
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