Problematic Smartphone Use Severity, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Behavioral Addiction

Due to the high accessibility and mobility of smartphones, widespread and pervasive smartphone use has become the social norm, exposing users to various health and other risk factors. There is, however, a debate on whether addiction to smartphone use is a valid behavioral addiction that is distinct from similar conditions, such as Internet and gaming addiction. The goal of this review is to gather and integrate up-to-date research on measures of smartphone addiction (SA) and problematic smartphone use (PSU) to better understand (a) if they are distinct from other addictions that merely use the smartphone as a medium, and (b) how the disorder(s) may fall on a continuum of addictive behaviors that at some point could be considered an addiction. A systematic literature search adapted from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was conducted to find all relevant articles on SA and PSU published between 2017 and 2019. A total of 108 articles were included in the current review. Most studies neither distinguished SA from other technological addictions nor clarified whether SA was an addiction to the actual smartphone device or to the features that the device offers. Most studies also did not directly base their research on a theory to explain the etiologic origins or causal pathways of SA and its associations. Suggestions are made regarding how to address SA as an emerging behavioral addiction.

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Smartphone addiction

Zdravstvena zastita ◽

10.5937/zdravzast50-32712 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 45-56

Author(s):

Aleksandra Nikolić

Keyword(s):

Behavioral Assessment ◽

International Classification Of Diseases ◽

Behavioral Addiction ◽

Smartphone Addiction ◽

Problematic Smartphone Use ◽

Functional Changes ◽

Classification Of Diseases ◽

Smartphone Use ◽

Assessment Scales

The number of smartphone users worldwide exceeds three billion today and further growth of several hundred million is projected over the next few years. The development of multifunctional smartphones and their use have changed the way of communication and information, but also led to concerns about their excessive use and dependence. In recent years, research on smartphone addiction has been on the rise. Parallels between excessive smartphone use and behavioral addiction are common in research. According to many authors, "smartphone addiction" can be considered a behavioral addiction. There is evidence for structural and functional changes in the brain, characteristic of behavioral addictions, in people who meet the psychometric criteria for "smartphone addiction." Some authors even suggest criteria for diagnosing smartphone addiction. On the other hand, some authors believe that the use of the term "addiction" can misrepresent the severity of the disorder, and therefore suggest the use of the term "problematic smartphone use". Due to growing concerns about the excessive use of smartphones, much is being done to identify and assess problematic smartphone use, mainly through the development and application of behavioral assessment scales. These scales are specially developed and validated to identify problematic smartphone use or to diagnose people with smartphone addiction, overuse, excessive phone attachment, etc. However, despite the fact that most of these scales are designed to be used for clinical purposes in the future, the problematic use of smartphones as a type of addiction is not in the International Classification of Diseases and these scales are still used only for research purposes. The use of the terms " problematic smartphone use " and "smartphone addiction", different methodological approaches used in the study, such as the application of different scales and the lack of standardized diagnostic criteria, make it difficult to define "smartphone addiction". All this supports the fact that "smartphone addiction" is a complex phenomenon that requires additional research.

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