scholarly journals Digital Intervention for Problematic Smartphone Use

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 13165
Author(s):  
Sarah Kent ◽  
Ciara Masterson ◽  
Raian Ali ◽  
Christine E. Parsons ◽  
Bridgette M. Bewick
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Smartphone Application ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Digital Intervention ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Personalised Feedback

Smartphones have become the primary devices for accessing the online world. The potential for smartphone use to become problematic has come into increasing focus. Students and young adults have been shown to use their smartphones at high rates and may be at risk for problematic use. There is limited research evaluating interventions for problematic smartphone use. The present research aimed to develop and evaluate a digital intervention for problematic smartphone use in a student population. A mixed-method case series design was used. The participants were 10 students with mild–moderate dependency on the online world (measured via a self-report questionnaire). An intervention comprising goal setting, personalised feedback, mindfulness, and behavioural suggestions was delivered via a smartphone application. Time spent on smartphones was measured objectively through the same application. Changes in problematic technology use, wellbeing, mindfulness, and sleep were also evaluated. The findings indicate that the intervention resulted in a reduction in self-reported problematic smartphone use, but not screen time. The findings also indicate that over the course of participation, there was a positive influence on wellbeing, online dependency, mindfulness, and sleep. However, the mechanisms of change could not be determined. The study provides preliminary evidence that a light-touch, smartphone-delivered package is an acceptable and effective intervention for students wishing to better manage their problematic smartphone use.

Sensitivity to financial rewards and impression management links to smartphone use and dependence

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
Graham Pluck ◽  
◽  
Pablo Emilio Barrera Falconi ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Reward Sensitivity ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Smartphone Addiction ◽  
Observational Measures ◽  
Instant Messenger ◽  
Smartphone Use

Computational modeling and brain imaging studies suggest that sensitivity to rewards and behaviorist learning principles partly explain smartphone engagement patterns and potentially smartphone dependence. Responses to a questionnaire, and observational measures of smartphone use were recorded for 121 university students. Each participant was also tested with a laboratory task of reward sensitivity and a test of verbal operant conditioning. Twenty-three percent of the sample had probable smartphone addiction. Using multivariate regression, smartphone use, particularly the number of instant messenger services employed, was shown to be significantly and independently predicted by reward sensitivity (a positive relationship), and by instrumental conditioning (a negative relationship). However, the latter association was driven by a subset of participants who developed declarative knowledge of the response-reinforcer contingency. This suggests a process of impression management driven by experimental demand characteristics, producing goal-directed instrumental behavior not habit-based learning. No other measures of smartphone use, including the self-report scale, were significantly associated with the experimental tasks. We conclude that stronger engagement with smartphones, in particular instant messenger services, may be linked to people being more sensitive to rewarding stimuli, suggestive of a motivational or learning mechanism. We propose that this mechanism could underly problem smartphone use and dependence. It also potentially explains why some aspects of smartphone use, such as habitual actions, appear to be poorly measured by technology-use questionnaires. A serendipitous secondary finding confirmed that smartphone use reflected active self-presentation. Our ‘conditioning’ task-induced this behavior in the laboratory and could be used in social-cognition experimental studies.

Metacognitions about problematic Smartphone use: Development of a self-report measure

2020 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 106484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Casale ◽  
Luisa Caponi ◽  
Giulia Fioravanti
Keyword(s):  
Self Report ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Report Measure

scholarly journals A ten-step behavioural intervention to reduce screen time and problematic smartphone use

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay A. Olson ◽  
Dasha Sandra ◽  
Denis Chmoulevitch ◽  
Amir Raz ◽  
Samuel P. L. Veissière
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Screen Time ◽  
Intervention Study ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Behavioural Intervention ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
The World ◽  
Smartphone Use

Problematic smartphone use is rising across the world and has been associated with reductions in concentration and well-being. Few interventions aiming to reduce smartphone use take a multi-faceted approach that balances feasibility and effectiveness. We developed such an intervention with ten simple guidelines that nudge users to reduce their screen time (e.g., disabling non-essential notifications). Two pre-registered studies tested the intervention. Study 1 (N = 51) found reductions in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and depressive symptoms after two weeks. Study 2 (N = 70) found that the intervention caused larger changes in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and sleep quality than a control group of screen time monitoring alone. Our brief intervention reduced screen time by one hour per day and returned problematic smartphone use scores to normal levels for at least six weeks. This intervention provides simple, scalable, and feasible behavioural guidelines to promote healthy technology use.

scholarly journals Self and Other Ratings of Problematic Smartphone Use: The Role of Personality and Relationship Type

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Horwood ◽  
Jeromy Anglim
Keyword(s):  
Big Five ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Relationship Type ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Common Method Bias ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Method Bias ◽  
The Relationship

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.

scholarly journals PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND BIOPHYSIOLOGICAL STUDIES OF TECHNOSTRESS IN MID-LIFE ADULTS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S951-S951
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mack ◽  
Shelia Cotten ◽  
Chu-Hsiang Chang ◽  
Wenda Bauschpies
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Biophysical Indicators ◽  
Initial Results

Abstract Long-term exposure to stress places people at risk for chronic diseases including but not limited to obesity, Type-2 diabetes, and heart disease. Various aspects of technology use are associated with stress. Known as technostress, this unique stress is characterized by individuals’ inability to cope with demands generated by computer-related technologies. To date, studies on technostress have focused on young adults and older adults, with an emphasis on self-reported indicators of both technology use and stress. This study differs from prior work in two ways. One, it examines technology use and stress in mid-life adults (50-64), an understudied population in research on technostress. This segment of the population is important because their technostress may negatively affect their successful transition into older adulthood. Second, we use three types of data to elucidate the linkages between technology use and stress: (1) self-reported survey measures of technology use and stress; (2) objective measures of technology use from tracking applications, and (3) biophysiological measures of stress. The study focuses on smartphone use, which was the most commonly used technology by mid-life adults on both weekdays and weekends based on our initial results (N=40). The goal of this pilot study is to highlight the problems and prospects of conducting technostress research through the utilization of multiple data collection modes: self-report, tracking applications (apps), and biophysical indicators.

The Psychology of Smartphone: The Development of the Smartphone Impact Scale (SIS)

Assessment ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 1176-1197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Pancani ◽  
Emanuele Preti ◽  
Paolo Riva
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Psychological Literature ◽  
Problematic Use ◽  
Impact Scale ◽  
Preliminary Version ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Item Scale

Smartphones are changing lives in a number of ways. However, the psychological literature has primarily focused on smartphone overuse, neglecting the impacts that are not strictly related to problematic use. The present research was aimed to develop a comprehensive self-report scale that accounts for the cognitive, affective, social, and behavioral impacts of smartphones in everyday life—the Smartphone Impact Scale (SIS). Study 1 ( N = 407) yielded a preliminary version of the scale, which was refined in Study 2 ( N = 601). The SIS is a 26-item scale that measures seven dimensions of smartphone impact. Results revealed meaningful associations between its subscales, psychosocial constructs, and daily usage of smartphones and apps. The SIS broadens the view of human–smartphone interaction by extending the concept of problematic smartphone use to further dimensions (e.g., emotion regulation) and introducing a proper measurement of underinvestigated smartphone impacts (e.g., tasks support). The implications of each SIS subscale are discussed.

scholarly journals Do smartphone usage scales predict behavior?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Alexander Ellis ◽  
Brittany I Davidson ◽  
Heather Shaw ◽  
Kris Geyer
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Psychometric Scales ◽  
Subsequent Behavior ◽  
Basic Technology ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
Frame Technology ◽  
The Impact

Understanding how people use technology remains important, particularly when measuring the impact this might have on individuals and society. However, despite a growing body of resources that can quantify smartphone use, research within psychology and social science overwhelmingly relies on self-reported assessments. These have yet to convincingly demonstrate an ability to predict objective behavior. Here, and for the first time, we compare a variety of smartphone use and ‘addiction’ scales with objective behaviors derived from Apple’s Screen Time application. While correlations between psychometric scales and objective behavior are generally poor, single estimates and measures that attempt to frame technology use as habitual rather than ‘addictive’ correlate more favorably with subsequent behavior. We conclude that existing self-report instruments are unlikely to be sensitive enough to accurately predict basic technology use related behaviors. As a result, conclusions regarding the psychological impact of technology are unreliable when relying solely on these measures to quantify typical usage.

scholarly journals Adolescents Suspended in the Space-Time: Problematic Use of Smartphone between Dissociative Symptoms and Flow Experiences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Ingrassia ◽  
Gioele Cedro ◽  
Sharon Puccio ◽  
Loredana Benedetto
Keyword(s):  
High School Students ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
School Students ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
Dissociative Symptoms ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Flow Experiences

Based on current digital culture, this chapter aims to provide an updated view of dissociative experiences as no-psychopathological symptoms of flow experiences. It has been hypothesized that prolonged exposures to smartphone screens could be a predictor of altered states of consciousness (flow) and that sometimes these prolonged exposures could degenerate into dissociative phenomena. Participants were 643 high school students aged between 13 and 23 years (M = 16.08; SD = 1.79). They were asked to answer four self-report questionnaires about the habits of smartphone usage, the perception of problematic smartphone use, and the assessment of dissociative symptoms and experiences (e.g., bizarre sensory experiences, absorption and imaginative involvement [AII], depersonalization and derealization). Gender differences emerged both in smartphone usage habits and some dissociative scales. Two gender-specific stepwise linear regressions showed that problematic smartphone use is one of the stronger predictors of dissociative symptoms. Results support the idea that in an adolescents’ community sample prolonged exposition to smartphone screens plays a role in the manifestation of dissociative symptoms. This is closely connected with experiences of AII, which could reinforce the use of devices contributing significantly to establishing a causal circularity between smartphone prolonged usage and AII phenomena.

scholarly journals Exploring the Dimensions of Smartphone Distraction: Development, Validation, Measurement Invariance, and Latent Mean Differences of the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melina A. Throuvala ◽  
Halley M. Pontes ◽  
Ioannis Tsaousis ◽  
Mark D. Griffiths ◽  
Mike Rennoldson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Construct Validity ◽  
Psychometric Properties ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Latent Mean Differences ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
Mean Differences

Background: Distraction is a functional emotion regulation strategy utilized to relieve emotional distress. Within the attention economy perspective, distraction is increasingly associated with digital technology use, performance impairments and interference with higher-order cognitive processes. Research on smartphone distraction and its association with problematic smartphone use is still scarce and there is no available psychometric assessment tool to assess this cognitive and emotive process parsimoniously.Method: The present study reports the development and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Smartphone Distraction Scale (SDS) through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, construct validity, gender invariance, and latent mean differences. The study was conducted in a sample of British university students (N = 1,001; M = 21.10 years, SD = 2.77).Results: The 16-item SDS was best conceptualized in a four-factor model solution comprising attention impulsiveness, online vigilance, emotion regulation, and multitasking. Construct validity was established using relevant psychosocial and mental health measures, with SDS scores being moderately associated with deficient self-regulation and problematic social media use. Gender measurement invariance was achieved at the configural, metric, and scalar levels, and latent mean differences indicated that females had significantly higher means than males across all four SDS latent factors.Discussion: The SDS presents with several strengths, including its theoretical grounding, relatively short length, and sound psychometric properties. The SDS enables the assessment of distraction, which appears to be one of the pathways to problematic smartphone use facilitating overuse and overreliance on smartphones for emotion regulation processes. The assessment of distraction in relation to problematic use in vulnerable populations may facilitate interventions that could encourage metacognition and benefit these groups by allowing sustained productivity in an increasingly disrupted work and social environment.

scholarly journals A test of the pathway model of problematic smartphone use

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natale Canale ◽  
Tania Moretta ◽  
Luca Pancani ◽  
Giulia Buodo ◽  
Alessio Vieno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Sensation Seeking ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Public Health Issue ◽  
Behavioural Inhibition ◽  
Pathway Model ◽  
Problematic Smartphone Use ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
Comprehensive Test ◽  
Smartphone Use

AbstractBackground and aimsProblematic smartphone use (PSU) has been described as a growing public health issue. In the current study, we aimed to provide a unique and comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. This model posits three distinct developmental pathways leading to PSU: (1) the excessive reassurance pathway, (2) the impulsive pathway and (3) the extraversion pathway.MethodsUndergraduate students (n = 795, 69.8% female, mean age = 23.80 years, sd = 3.02) completed online self-report measures of PSU (addictive use, antisocial use and dangerous use) and the psychological features (personality traits and psychopathological symptoms) underlying the three pathways.ResultsBayesian analyses revealed that addictive use is mainly driven by the excessive reassurance pathway and the impulsive pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include heightened negative urgency, a hyperactive behavioural inhibition system and symptoms of social anxiety. Dangerous and antisocial use are mainly driven by the impulsive pathway and the extraversion pathway, for which candidate etiopathological factors include specific impulsivity components (lack of premeditation and sensation seeking) and primary psychopathy (inclination to lie, lack of remorse, callousness and manipulativeness).Discussion and conclusionsThe present study constitutes the first comprehensive test of the pathway model of PSU. We provide robust and original results regarding the psychological dimensions associated with each of the postulated pathways of PSU, which should be taken into account when considering regulation of smartphone use or tailoring prevention protocols to reduce problematic usage patterns.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document