ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
This article is part of the Research TopicWomen in Sports and Exercise: Public Health and PromotionView all 11 articles
Reflections of Digital Slavery in Physical Inactivity: Examining Gender-Based Physical Activity Attitudes and Smartphone Addiction among University Students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Aydin Adnan Menderes Universitesi, Aydın, Türkiye
- 2Balıkesir University, Balıkesir, Türkiye
- 3Universitatea Dunarea de Jos din Galati, Galați, Romania
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the gender-based physical activity attitudes of university students according to their smartphone addiction levels. Method: The study was designed using a relational screening model. One thousand twenty-one university students participated in the study voluntarily and data were collected using an online survey method. In addition to the demographic characteristics of the participants, the Smartphone Addiction Scale–Short Form and the Cognitive Behavioral Physical Activity Scale were used in the study. Data were analyzed using the SPSS package program. Hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analyses were applied to determine the participants' smartphone addiction levels, and differences in physical activity attitudes according to gender and smartphone addiction level were tested with Univariate Analysis. Results: A significant difference was found in participants' physical activity attitudes according to their smartphone addiction levels (p< .05). Individuals with low smartphone addiction had higher physical activity attitude scores than those with moderate and high addiction levels. Regarding gender, men had significantly higher physical activity attitude scores than women (p< .05). However, the interaction between gender and smartphone addiction was found to have no significant effect on physical activity attitudes (p> .05). Conclusions: It was observed that attitudes toward physical activity decreased as smartphone addiction levels increased. This suggests that smartphone addiction negatively impacts young people's active lifestyle habits and increases their tendency toward sedentary behavior. By demonstrating the effects of digital addiction on attitudes toward physical activity, the study provides important findings regarding the sustainability of young people's healthy lifestyle habits.
Keywords: Digital Addiction, gender gap, physical activity, Smartphone addiction, Social habits
Received: 09 Nov 2025; Accepted: 29 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Altinisik, Guler, Isik, Talaghir, Nanu and Ivan. 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:
Ozkan Isik
Laurentiu-Gabriel Talaghir
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