ABSTRACT

This study has entitled the use of the mobile phone to affect adolescent behaviours in secondary schools in Kumba.

located in the Kumba 1 sub Division. The background of this study was based on the fact that mobile phone is popular since the late 1990s(Meek. 2006)and today over 7 billion mobile connections worldwide are the unique mobile subscription of over 3.5 billion (Twum.2011)

They are common with young people and place in our educational institutions. Base on a Groupe Special Association (GSMA) (2015) report, half of the world’s population has a mobile subscription with Smartphone adoption already reaching critical mass in developed markets.

The smartphone is now reaching 60 per cent of internet connection throughout the world. The use of these mobile phones in class causes a lot of distraction and disrupting students academic work.

It is against this backdrop that the researcher seeks to investigate student’s mobile phone usage and its effects on adolescent behaviours in secondary schools in Kumba 1 municipality.

Can one attribute that, the cause of high behaviour or general drop in behaviour in secondary school in Kumba be caused by the use of the mobile phone in the classroom? The main purpose of this study is to find out how the use of mobile phone affects adolescent behaviour. Research questions were formulated to guide this work.

The concept of mobile phone and adolescent behaviour. Theories were used to support the views of this researcher such as Observational learning theory by Albert Bandura Information processing theory by George A. Miller and Soft pedagogy or Soup Kitchen theory of Education by John Dewey.

The area of study was the G.H.S Kumba-Mbeng, G.B.H.S Up Station Kumba and G.S.S Kang Barombi Kumba located in the Kumba 1 sub Division. The sample size consists of 150 respondents. The researcher equally used the simple random sampling technique to get the respondents who answered the questionnaires data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

This method used in analyzing data for the students was the T-test which is a parametric test in the Statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS), version 25.

The findings of the study revealed that the use of mobile phone affects adolescents behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba.

Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: learners should only use their mobile phone in class when necessary or when recommended by the teachers in order not to be distracted and Guidance counsellors should be trained massively and send to universities and secondary schools to take care of the psychological atmosphere of students.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The use of mobile phones has equally come with lots of challenges and some of them are laziness, lack of concentration(distraction), arrogant and addiction. Mobile phone cause laziness in that it makes students not to think but they would use shortcuts and offload information. Also mobile phone cause lack of concentration this has caused some students to be physically present in class but mentally somewhere else (Tindall and Bohlander,2012, p.3). Again, the use of this mobile phone in class causes a lot of distraction and disrupting students’ academic work.it is against this backdrop that the researchers seeks to investigate on mobile phone usage and its effect on adolescent behaviour in some secondary schools in Kumba 1 Municipality, with schools such as G.H. S KUMBA MBENG, G.B.H.S. Station Kumba, and G.S.S. Kang Barombi. Even though there are challenges of mobile phones, there are also some advantages which are; its use for research purposes, students can use it to study especially when given an assignment that is difficult, it is use for communication for both the teachers and the parents, it is use for business purposes. Instructors across institutions of higher education are faced with decisions of whether to allow electronics or instate “non-electronic” policies in order to create student-centered going on; some use it to send text messages (SMS), while others use social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Google search and even twitting.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Main Objective:

To find out the effect of mobile phone usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality.

Specific Objective

Specifically, this study sets out to examine the following;

• To find out the effect of WhatsApp usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality.
• To investigate the effect of Facebook usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality.
• To examine the effects of Google search on students’ academic achievement.
• To find out the effects of text messaging on students’ note-taking during lesson and examination.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Main question

What is the effect of mobile phone usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality?

The following research questions were used to guide the work.

• What is the effect of WhatsApp usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality?
• What is the effect of Facebook usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality?
• What is the effect of Google search usage on adolescent behaviour in secondary schools in Kumba municipality?
• What is the effect of WhatsApp text message on students’ note-taking during lessons in Kumba municipality?