Twenty years ago, probably no one would have thought that people can become addicted to their mobile phones and feel a serious state of stress when the device does not perform the expected functions. It is largely accepted that they serve purposes other than only communication, since information and entertainment are helping users to fulfill demands such as learning, developing individual skills, safety, and the need for social relationships (1). Frequent use of technology encourages recurrent and systematic monitoring of social media and texts and the consequences of this trend of frequent smartphone use could include disruptions in the current activity and a rise in anxiety (2), may have long-term effects resulting in personality disorders and perhaps exacerbating pre-existing problems e.g., “obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, social interaction anxiety, internet or smartphone addiction” [(3), p. 157]. While technology has undoubtedly improved our lives in many ways, excessive dependence on smartphones leading to nomophobia can have detrimental effects on mental health and overall wellbeing.

All these, suggests that technology has become a new source of unconscious and implicit reactions (4) giving rise to new pathologies – techno-pathologies (5). The overuse of digital devices could be conceived as a specific type of addiction and there are experts that talk about fear of missing out (6), fear of being offline and nomophobia as “forms of anxiety that border on obsession or compulsion” [(7), p. 3]. Other research has demonstrated that smartphones may result in compulsive checking behaviors, compulsive usage (8) and that smartphones can lead to addiction (9); extensive use of the mobile phone may have adverse consequences, materialized in increased depression levels, high anxiety, and poor sleep quality (10).

Some new emerging mental health problems can be added to this picture. For instance, textaphrenia or textiety (11), phantom phone signals-ringxiety (5), netlessphobia (12, 13) allows us to expand the image of 21st century digital diseases, that all are related to the use of mobile phone.

It is known that excessive dependence on smartphones (which can lead to nomophobia) can have adverse effects on mental health. It might contribute to increased stress, anxiety, and even depression due to factors like constant connectivity, social comparison, fear of missing out (FOMO), and decreased real-world interactions. Furthermore, nomophobia can significantly impact overall wellbeing. Reliance on smartphones at the expense of real-world experiences, relationships, and self-care can lead to a diminished sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in life. Excessive screen time can also affect sleep quality, physical health, and emotional balance, thus affecting overall wellbeing.

Over the last years, several authors have been concerned with identifying the psychological factors that play a significant role in explaining nomophobia. In other words, they looked to decipher the dilemma of the co-occurrence of nomophobia with certain states or stable personality traits. In this respect, some direct association between different variables and nomophobia have been observed, but also it was evaluated the strength of the interaction terms in order to explain variance beyond that can be explained by the main effects in a regression equation. Thus, several studies have tried to map direct, associative relationships between psychological factors and nomophobia discomfort, anxiety, nervousness and nomophobia (14), separation anxiety and nomophobia (15), higher levels of fear, discomfort, avoidant attachment and nomophobia (16), rumination and nomophobia (17), FoMO, and nomophobia (18), mindfulness and nomophobia (19), while others have proposed multiple regression models to capture the explanatory complexity of the phenomenon. For instance, the regression model proposed by Argumosa-Villar et al. (20) includes self-esteem, extraversion, conscientiousness and emotional stability as factors that significantly predicts nomophobia. The previous studies indicate that the set of psychological variables associated with the usage of mobile phones can be conceived as a complex relational structure.

Based on Field’s idea (21) according to which multiple hierarchical regression is the best way to build explanatory models of the outcome variables, the current study proposes a predictive model of nomophobia that includes rumination, fear of missing out (FoMO), mindfulness, and non-pathological compulsions. More than that, being a multi-faceted phenomenon, nomophobia could also be explained by indirect effects. In this respect, this study aims to investigate the mediation effect of fear of missing out (FoMO) on the relationship between rumination and nomophobia.

The study relied on a quantitative approach for data gathering, employing a questionnaire-based survey.

The data was analyzed using the SPSS software program, Version 20.0. The study involved distributing the Google Form link to 250 students from various faculties at Iasi University, Romania. Out of the 250 completed questionnaires, only 194 responses that successfully passed the SPSS screening and cleaning procedures and were included in the current analysis.

In this investigation, hypotheses were formulated to explore potential statistically significant relationships among the variables. Consequently, methods like Pearson’s correlation, hierarchical regression, and mediation analysis employing Hayes’s PROCESS tool are deemed suitable for testing these hypotheses. According to Chan et al. (79) for samples which fall between 50 and 300, we need a z range between −3.29 and +3.29 in order to have a normal distribution. As shown in Table 1, the statistical data indicate a normal distribution.

Firstly, we hypothesized that it is possible to identify a set of relationships between rumination, fear of missing out (FoMO), mindfulness, non-pathological compulsions and nomophobia. More precisely, we suggested that rumination, fear of missing out (FoMO), and non-pathological compulsions are positively related to nomophobia, while mindfulness is negatively related to nomophobia.

As shown in Table 2, statistical data revealed the existence of a significant positive correlation between rumination and nomophobia, r(194) = 0.343, **p < 0.01, and a significant positive correlation between the fear of missing out and nomophobia, r(194) = 0.539, **p < 0.01. In other words, young people aged 19 to 25 who get high scores on rumination and fear of missing out tend to get high scores on nomophobia, too. Our findings are consistent with previous research conducted by Khoo and Yang (44), Lian et al. (54), and Cheng et al. (55) who found that there is a direct, positive and significant relationship between rumination and nomophobia. Additionally Hoşgör and Hoşgör (18), demonstrated a noteworthy moderate positive and direct relationship between nomophobia and fear of missing out. Their study revealed that fear of missing out accounted for 30% of nomophobia. Regarding the relationship between non-pathological compulsions and nomophobia, the Pearson correlation analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between non-pathological compulsions and nomophobia, r(194) = −0.251, **p < 0.01, which is an unexpected result, meaning that Romanian students who get high scores on non-pathological compulsions tend to get low scores on nomophobia. In this respect, we consider that the empirical research to support the positive relationship of non-pathological compulsions and nomophobia is somehow scarce and additional theoretical and research contributions are needed to study the impact of non-pathological compulsions on smartphone addiction.

The results concerning relationship between mindfulness and nomophobia pointed out a significant positive correlation between mindfulness and nomophobia, r(194) = 0.147, *p = 0.041. This means that the students participating in this research with high scores on mindfulness are more likely to have high scores on nomophobia; this result is in contrast with several earlier studies. Existing research suggests that while mindfulness increases, the effect of nomophobia on addictive smartphone use decreases (63, 64). The same relation was revealed by the studies of Arpaci et al. (65); furthermore they (65) suggested that there exists a significant negative correlation between mindfulness and nomophobia for both male and female subjects.

To examine the efficacy of explanatory models concerning nomophobia involving rumination, fear of missing out, mindfulness, and non-pathological compulsion, a three-stage hierarchical regression analysis was carried out (Figure 1).

Therefore, rumination and fear of missing out were entered at stage one of regression. Mindfulness was added at stage two and non-pathological compulsion at stage three. Variables were introduced in this order due to their importance revealed in previous studies. The significant values of standardized coefficients and changes in R² were examined to assess the interaction terms’ capacity to elucidate variance beyond what is already explained by the main effects in the equation. Intercorrelations between the multiple regression variables were reported in Table 2 and the regression statistics are in Table 3.

The hierarchical multiple regression revealed that at stage one, rumination and fear of missing out contributed in a significant manner to the regression model, F(2,191) = 41.92, **p < 0.01, and described for 31% of the variation in nomophobia. On introducing mindfulness, variables explained an additional 0.4% in the variation in nomophobia and this change in R² was significant, F(3,190) = 28.28, **p < 0.01. Adding non-pathological compulsion to the regression equation, the model explained an additional 3% of the variation in nomophobia and this change in R² was significant, F(4,189) = 24.14, **p < 0.01.

The findings suggested that Model 3, comprising rumination, fear of missing out, mindfulness, and non-pathological compulsions, stands as the most accurate explanatory model. It displayed an adjusted coefficient of determination R² = 0.34, indicating that the variables within Model 3 collectively account for 34% of the variance in nomophobia. The highest explanatory contribution for nomophobia is given by fear of missing out, followed by non-pathological compulsions and rumination. Additionally, the effect size indicators for significant predictors were: r_sp = 0.41 for fear of missing out, r_sp = −0.17 for non-pathological compulsions, and r_sp = 0.12 for rumination. Therefore, the effects are medium (fear of missing out) and weak (non-pathological compulsions and rumination). Nomophobia is equal to 82 + 1.55*fear of missing out +0.37*rumination – 58.53*non-pathological compulsions, where fear of missing out is coded in dichotomous units 1 = true and 2 = false, non-pathological compulsions is also coded in dichotomous units 1 = true and 2 = false, and rumination is coded in units ranging from 5 = agree to 1 = disagree. These values indicate that as fear of missing out increases by one unit, nomophobia increases by 1.55 units. Also, as rumination increases by one unit, nomophobia increases by 0.37 units. Finally, as non-pathological compulsion increases by one unit, nomophobia decreases 58.53 units.

The nomophobia explanatory model that we have examined so far has unveiled a direct relationship between rumination, fear of missing out, mindfulness, and non-pathological compulsions (the predictors) and nomophobia (the outcome). Taking into consideration the complexity of nomophobia and starting from previous evidence (17, 18, 44, 54, 55), it’s obvious that the relationships among the factors explored in the study are multifaceted. Consequently, we hypothesized that the relationship between rumination and nomophobia is not only a direct effect, but it operates through an increase in fear of missing out (FoMO). The hypothesis was examined through a mediation analysis using Hayes’s PROCESS tool (Figure 2).

According to study findings, there was highlighted a significant indirect effect of rumination on nomophobia through fear of missing out, b = 0.598, Bca CI [0.378, 0.865], and similarly K² = 0.206, 95% Bca CI [0.132, 0.285]. K² is bounded between 0 and 1, so we can interpret this as the indirect effect being about 20.6% of the maximum value that it could have been, which is a medium and meaningful mediation effect. A high level of rumination leads to a high level of nomophobia, both directly and indirectly through increasing the fear of missing out, which leads to a higher level of nomophobia. Sobel mediation test values (z = 4.89, **p < 0.01) reconfirmed the importance of the fear of missing out factor as a mediator of the relationship between rumination and nomophobia. As we can see in Figure 2, the statistical analysis has demonstrated the presence of partial mediation within the proposed conceptual model. Specifically, it indicates that fear of missing out acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between rumination and nomophobia. It’s encouraging to note that these relationships are in line with the predicted direction.

As gender has been taken into account in previous works (65) in relation to some intervention models in treating nomophobia, showing their effectiveness especially in women, the study examined the difference in the intensity of nomophobia for man and woman participants (Table 4). We hypothesized that nomophobia is more present in young females compared to males. The outcomes from the Independent-Samples T Test indicate significant differences in nomophobia based on gender, t(192) = −4.555, **p < 0.01. Young female aged 19 to 25 years obtained higher scores on nomophobia (MD = 79.38) compared to young males of the same age (MD = 64.18).

A final refining of the analysis of nomophobia involved the time spent by students on mobile phone. Statistical data (Table 5) indicated that there is a significant difference between participants who use mobile phone more than 3 h a day and those who use it less than 3 h a day regarding the level of nomophobia, t(192) = −4.276, **p < 0.01. As the time of using mobile phone increases to more than 3 h a day, the level of nomophobia also increases (MD = 78.52), compared to the situation when time spent on the mobile phone is less than 3 h a day (MD = 64.06).

Nowadays, in the empire of modern technologies, it has become really challenging to decipher the codes of human behavior. We can easily notice a variety of contrasting effects in using mobile phones, computers, the Internet and all the applications. All these are supposed to make our lives easier, but on the contrary, sometimes we experience undesirable effects on us, such as restlessness, fear and worry. In other words, there are times when, for example, using the phone leads to negative cognitive and affective reactions in terms of personal characteristics and achievements, social integration, effective interaction with the world around us and the possibility of being in continuous development. Such a negative affective reaction is nomophobia. In the scientific literature, several studies (15, 22, 27–30, 32, 80) have examined nomophobia as a factor underlying behavioral changes or negative affective reactions, and far fewer have explored what actually determines people to develop such a phobia. In light of these facts, our study wanted to highlight some triggers of nomophobia and to clarify the nature of the relationships between those predictors and nomophobia.

Our current research aimed to elucidate specific psychological factors that contribute to the presence of nomophobia among students within the Romanian university context. On this multidimensional phenomenon of nomophobia, fear of missing out (FoMO), non-pathological compulsions, and rumination, included in a regression model, in this order, played the most important role, together explaining 34% of nomophobia variance. Furthermore, the fear of missing out (FoMO) has the greatest explanatory power of nomophobia. In terms of the interpretation of these connections, there existed a direct, positive, and significant correlation between fear of missing out, rumination, and nomophobia, and a direct, negative, and significant association for non-pathological compulsions and nomophobia. This means that as fear of missing out (FoMO) and rumination increase, nomophobia also increases, and as non-pathological compulsions increase, nomophobia decreases. In other words, among Romanian students, the greater the uncertainty related to fear of missing out (FoMO) a call, a message (6) or social network updates, the greater fear of being out of mobile phone access will be. Complementary, the more students show a tendency to think passively and repetitively about personal current feeling states, own characteristics and the possible causes and consequences of these symptoms (45), the higher the level of nomophobia will be. These results confirm the hypotheses formulated in this study, and are also consistent with previous literature.

In their study, Gezgin et al. (80) identified a moderately positive relationship between nomophobia and levels of fear of missing out (FoMO). As well, Hoşgör and Hoşgör (18) showed that there is a moderately significant association and a positive direct relationship between fear of missing out and nomophobia, and that fear of missing out accounts for 30% of nomophobia. Indeed, in a study involving Chinese college students (81), highlighted that smartphone use for entertainment purposes and concerns about missing out on enjoyable experiences with friends were linked to susceptibility to nomophobia. Concerning the relationship between rumination and nomophobia, it involves a double sense. On one side, a closer review of previous studies indicates that rumination extensively predicts excessive smartphone use (44), but on the other side, in modern societies, there’s a shift in understanding rumination–it’s not only seen through a cognitive lens but also through the lens of human-device interaction. This expanded view, acknowledges how our contemplations intersect with and are influenced by our interactions with technology (82).

.Looking to map out the concepts and relationships underlying nomophobia, we have recognized that our explanatory model, focusing on the direct impact of predictors on the dependent variable, only addresses one facet of the issue. Based on previous studies (17, 18, 44, 54, 55, 83), we tested a mediator model in which the relationship between rumination and nomophobia is mediated by fear of missing out. So, we found a significant indirect effect of rumination on nomophobia through fear of missing out, which means that a high level of rumination predicts a high level of nomophobia, both directly and indirectly through increasing the fear of missing out, which, in turn, predicts a higher level of nomophobia.

Given the extent to which nomophobia has taken hold in the last few years, a comparative analysis of the variability of this phenomenon along relevant structural dimensions can improve our understanding of the concept. In the current study we have confirmed a prevalence of nomophobia in young females aged 19–25 years in comparison with young males of the same age. These findings are in line with the hypotheses formulated and are also supported by previous studies, some authors suggesting that nomophobia is present in both men and women, but specific intervention models in treating nomophobia may be more effective especially in women (16, 65).

The current study’s results align with Gonçalves, Dias, and Correia’s findings (28), indicating that the number of hours spent using smartphones daily serves as a strong predictor of nomophobia. Specifically, our study suggests that young individuals who use mobile phones for more than 3 h per day tend to exhibit higher levels of nomophobia. Basically, we are dealing here with a matter of duration in using smartphones which has been associated with terms such as excessive use or overuse of smartphones and smartphone addiction (60).

Finally, we can state that, based on the current study findings, the ideas, implicitly, the research hypotheses have been confirmed. Thus, we can emphasize the existence of a predictive model of nomophobia, in which the factors fear of missing out (FoMO), non-pathological compulsions, and rumination, included in a regression model, in this order, played the most important role. Additionally, this research has demonstrated the significant mediating effect of factor fear of missing out (FoMO) on the relationship between rumination and nomophobia. Given that we did not identify studies that put together the above-mentioned psychological factors into explanatory model of nomophobia, we believe that present results help to a better understanding of nomophobia and could guide a potential intervention to dilute this type of phobia.

The initial premise was rooted in previous studies indicating the prevalence of nomophobia, primarily among adolescents and university students. However, the significant limitation of the current study stemmed from the use of a study group confined to one university’s subjects. However, this does not diminish the value of the data obtained on the selected sample of participants. The results found in the present study may express a pattern that can certainly be replicated in other groups of university students. Indeed, the methodology’s reliance on a Google Form questionnaire might have impacted the objectivity and potentially introduced desirability biases in the participants’ responses to the questions. The adaptation of the questionnaires to the cultural context could be an extra limitation of the study, despite the fact that the scales showed good psychometric properties. Nevertheless, the outcomes of this study have provided significant insights and have led to comprehensive conclusions regarding potential explanations for nomophobia among young individuals.

This study paves the way for future research endeavors and offers opportunities for further interpretation and exploration concerning nomophobia, for example, detailing the impact of mindfulness on nomophobia using of a multidimensional scale covering the facets of the concept of mindfulness. Furthermore, it is essential that in a future methodological investigation on nomophobia, the role of other predictor/mediator variables should also be taken into account. It would be interesting to test and clarify the relationships between depression, anxiety, psychological resilience, boredom, panic disorder, nervousness, welfare satisfaction with life and nomophobia. Ultimately, further research efforts will be essential to explore and understand nomophobia more comprehensively, using a longitudinal design with multiple measurements to more accurately capture the dynamics of this phenomenon.

According to the current research findings, fear of being without a mobile phone or losing mobile phone contact especially found in young people is predicted at 34% by rumination, fear of missing out, mindfulness, and non-pathological compulsion. Among these factors, the highest explanatory contribution for nomophobia is given by fear of missing out, which has a direct impact on the phenomenon, but also mediates the relationship between rumination and nomophobia. In other words, on one hand, a high level of rumination leads to a high level of nomophobia, both directly and indirectly through increasing the fear of missing out, which, on the other hand, leads to a higher level of nomophobia. In addition, the study indicates the prevalence of nomophobia in women, and draws attention to time duration in using smartphones daily.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

CC, AM, and RA contributed to conception and design of the study and wrote sections of the manuscript. AM organized the database and performed the statistical analysis. CC wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.