Gravitating towards mobile phone (GoToMP) during lecture periods by students: Why are they using it? and how can it be measured?

With the growing amount of research on the use of technology, especially the mobile phones, the paucity of research in the area of mobile phone use that focus on the reasons why students use their mobile phones during lecture periods is somewhat surprising. Findings from the previous studies have documented that students continue to use their mobile phones during lecture periods even in classes where its use is banned. Thus, the motives that determine students' continued intention to use their mobile phones during lecture periods becomes an important issue that deserves urgent attention from researchers and education policymakers. In the present investigation, we tried to fill this gap by examining the determinants of students' continuance use of mobile phones during lecture periods. To achieve this, three stages of instrument development (item generation, scale development, and instrument testing) were undertaken through two studies. The results of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the existence of six dimensions in the proposed measurement instrument (which we referred to as gravitating towards mobile phone (GoToMP)); the dimensions are boredom, class-related use, social connection, emergency, addiction, and perceived behavioral control. The combined findings from the two studies reported here provide initial evidence that GoToMP exhibits excellent psychometric properties and can be used in future empirical research on mobile phone use behaviors of students.