Types of smartphone usage and problematic smartphone use among adolescents: A review of literature

This review aimed to provide an overview of the influence of social and process smartphone use on problematic smartphone use (PSU) among adolescents aged between 10-24 years old. Social smartphone use comprises three types of smartphone features: social networking sites, chatting/texting/instant messaging, and video/phone calls. On the other hand, categories of process smartphone use include watching videos/television/movies, web surfing, playing games, listening to music/podcasts/radio, and educational learning. There were 42 studies with a total of 139,389 adolescents met the criteria for inclusion after a thorough search of academic databases. Overall, the evidence from the studies included in this review revealed that chatting/texting, video/phone calls, watching videos/television/movies and music/podcasts/radio were positively and significantly linked to and predicted problematic smartphone use. Social networking sites use, instant messaging, gaming, web surfing and educational learning yielded inconsistent results. They could have a positive or negative relationship with PSU and play a role in predicting PSU. More research is needed for music/podcasts/radio and video/phone calls because the results are still scarce

Bedtime smartphone use and academic performance : A longitudinal analysis from the stressor-strain-outcome perspective

The penetration of smartphones into human life finds expression in problematic smartphone use, particularly under the Covid-19 home confinement. Problematic smartphone use is accompanied by adverse impacts on personal wellbeing and individual performance. However, little is known about the mechanism of such adverse impacts. Motivated by this, the present study strives to answer (i) how bedtime smartphone use impacts students’ academic performance through wellbeing-related strains; (ii) how to mitigate the adverse consequences of bedtime smartphone use. Drawing upon the stressor-strain-outcome paradigm, the current work presents a comprehensive understanding of how smartphone use indirectly deteriorates college students’ academic performance through the mediators of nomophobia — “the fear of being unavailable to mobile phones” (Lin et al., 2021) — and sleep deprivation. This allows a more flexible remedy to alleviate the adverse consequences of smartphone use instead of simply limiting using smartphones. This study collects a two-year longitudinal dataset of 6093 college students and employs the structural equation modeling technique to examine the stressor‐strain‐outcome relationship among bedtime smartphone use, nomophobia, sleep deprivation, and academic performance. This study finds robust evidence that wellbeing-related strains (i.e., nomophobia and sleep deprivation) mediate the negative relationship between bedtime smartphone use and academic performance. Furthermore, engaging in physical activity effectively mitigates the adverse effects of bedtime smartphone use upon nomophobia and sleep deprivation. This study not only enriches the current literature regarding the indirect effect mechanism of smartphone use but also provides valuable insights for academics and educational policymakers

Smartphone use and academic performance : a literature review

We present the first systematic review of the scientific literature on smartphone use and academic success. We synthesise the theoretical mechanisms, empirical approaches, and empirical findings described in the multidisciplinary literature to date. Our analysis of the literature reveals a predominance of empirical results supporting a negative association between students’ frequency of smartphone use and their academic success. However, the strength of this association is heterogeneous by (a) the method of data gathering, (b) the measures of academic performance used in the analysis, and (c) the measures of smartphone use adopted. The main limitation identified in the literature is that the reported associations cannot be given a causal interpretation. Based on the reviewed findings and limitations, directions for further research are discussed

Smartphone Addictions: A Review of Themes, Theories and Future Research Directions

This research work presents a literature review on Smartphone Addiction (SA). The papers used for this review were retrieved from AIS (All Repositories), Elsevier, Wiley Online, Tailor and Francis and JSTOR databases using the phrase Smartphone Addiction . In all, 13 AIS top conferences and 31 peer-reviewed journals searched from 2007 to July 2018 returned 1572 papers. This paper details the findings based on the literature assessment of 128 publications. In terms of context and geographical gaps, Asia leads the chart with 39 articles representing 30.5percent and Africa recorded only 1 paper used for this work. Online data collection with global focus had 37 articles representing 28.9percent and quantitative methodology was adopted by 91 articles representing 71.1percent. SA research was more at the micro and meso levels. This review has demonstrated that literature offers several perspectives on SA but failed to establish a causal theory or a model that fully accounted for urge and craving phenomena from an IS design principle perspective to mitigate SA. Also, smartphones are devices (artifacts) that enable users to access and become addicted to applications such as video games, SNSs, emails, etc. Future research should, therefore, focus more on addictive activities and applications on these devices

Measurement invariance of the short version of the problematic mobile phone use questionnaire (PMPUQ-SV) across eight languages

The prevalence of mobile phone use across the world has increased greatly over the past two decades. Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU) has been studied in relation to public health and comprises various behaviours, including dangerous, prohibited, and dependent use. These types of problematic mobile phone behaviours are typically assessed with the short version of the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Questionnaire (PMPUQ-SV). However, to date, no study has ever examined the degree to which the PMPU scale assesses the same construct across different languages. The aims of the present study were to (i) determine an optimal factor structure for the PMPUQ-SV among university populations using eight versions of the scale (i.e., French, German, Hungarian, English, Finnish, Italian, Polish, and Spanish); and (ii) simultaneously examine the measurement invariance (MI) of the PMPUQ-SV across all languages. The whole study sample comprised 3038 participants. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and Cronbach's alpha coefficients were extracted from the demographic and PMPUQ-SV items. Individual and multigroup confirmatory factor analyses alongside MI analyses were conducted. Results showed a similar pattern of PMPU across the translated scales. A three-factor model of the PMPUQ-SV fitted the data well and presented with good psychometric properties. Six languages were validated independently, and five were compared via measurement invariance for future cross-cultural comparisons. The present paper contributes to the assessment of problematic mobile phone use because it is the first study to provide a cross-cultural psychometric analysis of the PMPUQ-SV

Internet and Smartphone Use-Related Addiction Health Problems: Treatment, Education and Research

This Special Issue presents some of the main emerging research on technological topics of health and education approaches to Internet use-related problems, before and during the beginning of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The objective is to provide an overview to facilitate a comprehensive and practical approach to these new trends to promote research, interventions, education, and prevention. It contains 40 papers, four reviews and thirty-five empirical papers and an editorial introducing everything in a rapid review format. Overall, the empirical ones are of a relational type, associating specific behavioral addictive problems with individual factors, and a few with contextual factors, generally in adult populations. Many have adapted scales to measure these problems, and a few cover experiments and mixed methods studies. The reviews tend to be about the concepts and measures of these problems, intervention options, and prevention. In summary, it seems that these are a global culture trend impacting health and educational domains. Internet use-related addiction problems have emerged in almost all societies, and strategies to cope with them are under development to offer solutions to these contemporary challenges, especially during the pandemic situation that has highlighted the global health problems that we have, and how to holistically tackle them

A qualitative study of digital citizenship practices and the fear of missing out: perceptions of middle school students and principals

Doctor of EducationDepartment of Educational LeadershipMajor Professor Not ListedThe purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of middle school students and principals regarding digital citizenship practices and how these practices and behaviors are impacted by the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). A phenomenological qualitative research study was conducted through three student focus groups, one principal focus group, and six individual student interviews to answer the research questions. The investigation revolved around four topics: digital citizenship, interconnected digital platform usage, social media, and FoMO. Focus group and interview transcripts were transcribed and coded to generate five themes. The five themes that emerged from the data included: (1) Balancing Connections, Communication, and Appropriate Practices, (2) Relationships, Responsibilities, and Finding an Online Identity of Interests, (3) Characteristics of a Positive Digital Citizen, (4) Emotions and Feelings Shaped by Experiences, and (5) Disconnect Between an Understanding of Digital Citizenship and Reality of Practice. Based upon the results of the study, the researcher recommends it would be appropriate for schools to implement technology classes and programs that educate students on how to properly utilize interconnected digital platforms and devices. Educating students about how to use the devices, the purpose of social media, and how to be a positive digital citizen would be beneficial. The FoMO influences students and should be considered when designing policies and school rules regarding interconnected digital media platforms. Furthermore, based on the results of this research study, efforts to develop positive digital citizenship habits should include direct instruction on interpersonal communication. Future research should center around the psychology behind automatic responses and the realization of conducting tasks without cognizant awareness. Continued dialogue with students to better understand this phenomenon is warranted

Problematic Internet Use: a concern for student wellbeing and academic performance

Problematic Internet Use (PIU) has been linked to student loneliness, wellbeing and Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Thus, there is a need to investigate the use of the internet and the impact of that use in universities. Reliance on self-assessment to identify PIU has generated concern in previous research, the need for measures that include assessment of actual behavior has been highlighted. This research used a method which is innovative in psychology, to gather and analyse objective data on internet activity in a university over an academic year. Student self-assessment data on PIU subtypes (general PIU, problematic smartphone use, problematic social media use, problematic internet gaming, and problematic pornography use), wellbeing, loneliness and FOMO were also gathered. The data were used to understand actual internet behavior, student assessment of that behavior and relationships with wellbeing, loneliness and FOMO. The first and third study examined the Wifi digital traces of approximately 13,000 users at a university for an academic year. Principal component analysis identified patterns in the users’ engagement with the internet. Machine learning identified clusters of users with the same pattern of activity and enabled prediction of education activity. In the second study, the self-assessment data from 834 university students explained how users of the university WiFi assessed their internet usage behavior, wellbeing, loneliness and FOMO. A partial correlation network and variance partitioning clarified relationships between PIU subtypes, wellbeing, loneliness and FOMO. The I-PACE model (Brand et al., 2019) was used to illuminate the findings in a model of behavioral addiction. This research contributes to understanding PIU in students and links to loneliness, wellbeing and FOMO with: (i) objective measures of actual behavior; (ii) identification of patterns of internet behavior; (iii) prediction of activity on the internet using objective data; and (iv) use of partial correlation networks, variance partitioning and the I-PACE model to clarify the relationships between PIU subtypes and wellbeing, loneliness and FOMO

The Impacts of Advancements in Digital Technologies on Students’ Self-Regulated Learning

This study examined student digital technology usage and student self-regulated learning in 2012 and 2020. Digital technologies have become a staple in both our learning environment, as well as our personal environment. In order to promote and enhance student self-regulated learning, two domains were examined in this study: the student’s personal environment and the educational provider’s learning environment. This holistic examination led to the development a Dual Model of Self-Regulated Learning for supporting student learning