Self and Other Ratings of Problematic Smartphone Use: The Role of Personality and Relationship Type
Reliance on self-report to measure problematic smartphone use is a limitation of the extant literature. It is unclear whether self- and other-ratings of problematic smartphone use converge and whether correlations between personality and self-reported problematic smartphone use are distorted by common method bias. The current study provides the first comprehensive assessment of self-other agreement of problematic smartphone use and the relationship between personality and other-rated problematic smartphone use in a large sample of young adults. Focal participants (n = 1073) were Australian university students who completed measures of Big Five (IPIP) and HEXACO (HEXACO PI-R) personality, and problematic smartphone use. One or more people who knew the focal participant well (n = 2445) rated the focal participant's problematic smartphone use. People rated their own smartphone use as more problematic than did others. Self- and other-ratings of problematic smartphone use correlated 0.38. The pattern of self-other and other-other correlations indicated that self-ratings were more accurate than other-ratings. The pattern of high neuroticism and low conscientiousness predicting greater problematic smartphone use was observed for both self- and other-ratings. Findings suggest that self-report measures are reasonably valid, problematic smartphone usage is observable, and the relationship between personality and problematic smartphone use is robust.