Breaking the shackles of nomophobia: a school-based intervention using strength-based counseling, co-curricular activities and blended learning

The rapid advancement of information communication technologies has transformed our daily lives, influencing how we learn and interact with the world around us. This study investigated nomophobia prevalence among students of a senior high school in Ghana’s Upper West Region and explored interventions to address it. Seventy participants were conveniently sampled from a population of 610 students. The Nomophobia Scale (NMP-Q) was the data collection instrument adopted for this study. The Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.968, and 0.971 for pre-intervention and post-intervention datasets, respectively indicated highly consistent responses The modal and mean ages were 19 and 17.76 years, respectively, with a standard deviation of 1.72. Pre-intervention analysis revealed alarming levels of nomophobia, with 73% and 27% reportedly suffering severe and moderate levels of nomophobia respectively. Post-intervention, a reduction in nomophobia levels was observed, with 79% and 21% reporting moderate and mild levels of nomophobia respectively. In-depth analysis showed that urban students and those with better internet access were worse affected. Strength-based counseling, co-curricular activities, and blended learning were the main interventions designed and implemented to address the situation. The findings underscored the need for targeted interventions to promote healthy technology use habits among high school students. Further research in this direction should explore other interventions, conduct longitudinal, and comparative studies, and undertake qualitative research, with technology access, quality and equity as pivotal factors.