Abstract

With fast-speed emerging technologies, there has been a dramatic increase in adolescents using technologies, especially mobile phones. Moreover, the increasing amount of time teenagers spends on their mobile phone may take away important social aspects in their lives such as family relationships. This research deals with the impacts of mobile phone engagement on the youth’s family relationships. This study comprised a sample of 300 randomly selected high school students from different private schools in San Pablo City. Researcher-made questionnaires are used to assess the possible relationships between digital technological engagement and family relationships. Both instruments were pilot tested with a good level of internal consistency, 0.80 for the mobile phone engagement questionnaire and 0.865 for the family relationship questionnaire. Using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, moderate correlations indicate significant relationships between mobile phone engagement and family relationships. Further, findings of the study indicate that as the respondent’s increases in their technological engagement, their family relationship weaken.

Keywords: mobile phone engagement, family relationship, social cognitive theory, attachment theory