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.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/422/pdf

Does smartphone addiction fall on a continuum of addictive behaviors

The influence of depressive symptoms and fear of missing out on severity of problematic smartphone use and Internet gaming disorder among Chinese young adults: A three-wave mediation model.

This study aims to investigate the multiple mediation of loneliness and anxiety in the relationship between adolescents’ duration of daily smartphone usage and their nomophobia levels, based on soc...

Duration of daily smartphone usage as an antecedent of nomophobia: exploring multiple mediation of loneliness and anxiety

This study states the importance to analyse factors that contribute to students’ well-being, as the result of many factors that might affect their quality of life. Literature shows as, among these factors, emotional intelligence and self-regulation control could have a central role in influencing adolescents' psychological and scholastic well-being. Indeed, although technologies represent a fundamental aspect of adolescents’ life, an addictive use of smartphone is today present and it might touch the individual well-being and quality of life. So, this work investigates also the role of the smartphone use regarding these constructs. 215 Italian students attending a Middle School, participated in the study. By the application of Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS_SEM), the findings confirm that self-regulation has an influence on students’ quality of life, but its role changes in relation of the smartphone addiction. In conclusion, we can affirm the relevance of relationship between self-regulation and smartphone addiction, in order to educate students to be aware about the time spent using smartphone; it is important to enhance emotional intelligence and, over all, self-regulation, to support the students’ well-being and quality of life in adolescences at school.

/pdf/emotional-intelligence-self-regulation-smartphone-addiction-1u4lk6o3u0.pdf

Emotional Intelligence, Self-Regulation, Smartphone Addiction: Which Relationship With Student Well-Being and Quality of Life?

Prior work has suggested that individuals with deficits in emotion regulation skills are prone to compulsive behaviour and to following maladaptive coping strategies, such as smartphone overuse, to manage negative moods. Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage for deficits in emotion regulation, and these are linked to excessive smartphone use. The present study is the first to examine the links between the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies and problematic smartphone use in a sample of adolescents. A total of 845 Spanish adolescents (455 females) completed the Spanish versions of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Smartphone Addiction Scale, along with a socio-demographic survey. The adolescents were divided into two groups: Non-problematic smartphone users (n = 491, 58.1%) and problematic smartphone users (n = 354, 41.9%). Significant group differences were found, with the problematic users reporting significantly higher scores for all maladaptive CER strategies, including higher self-blame, rumination, blaming of others and catastrophising. The results from logistic regression analyses show that rumination, catastrophising and blaming of others were the most important variables for distinguishing between the two groups, along with gender and parental control outside the home. In summary, these findings suggest the importance of specific maladaptive CER strategies in problematic smartphone use and provide insight for relevant targets for intervention designs.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/17/3142/pdf

The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Problematic Smartphone Use: Comparison between Problematic and Non-Problematic Adolescent Users

Background: Problematic smartphone usage among adolescents and young adults is a growing concern.Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms mediate ...

The relationship between academic stress and adolescents’ problematic smartphone usage

This study attempts to understand the behavior of the elderly using new media and the degree of successful aging. Because of the systematic way of thinking, looking at the patterns of successful aging in an older society can help elderly people control the influence of their personal lives. The research used the method of questionnaire survey. 205 valid questionnaires were collected for statistical analysis. The conclusions are as follows: (1) There is a correlation between the use of mobile phones and the degree of successful aging among the elderly; (2) The effect of the duration and frequency of mobile phone use on successful social and spiritual aging varies among elderly people with different educational levels.

/pdf/the-effect-of-education-level-on-mobile-phone-use-and-27awel27.pdf

The Effect of Education Level on Mobile Phone Use and Successful Aging among the Elderly — Take Xiamen City as an Example

Bullying behaviour is becoming alarmingly common among adolescents, and it significantly affects their physical and mental health. Martial arts emphasizes moral practice and self-control, and it improves emotional management ability. Hence, adolescents who practice martial arts may have better self-regulation and tend to perform fewer bullying behaviours. The purpose of this study was to explore the internal mechanisms between self-control and bullying behaviour among martial arts practicing (MAP) adolescents. The study included 775 adolescents (males = 515, age M = 13.48, SD = 1.11) who responded to questionnaires to assess self-control, negative affect, aggression, and bullying behaviour. The results showed that (1) The self-control level of MAP adolescents was higher than that of non-MAP counterparts while the bullying behaviour level of MAP adolescents was lower than that of non-MAP counterparts; (2) Self-control was negatively associated with bullying behaviour through indirect effects, and negative affect and aggression played key mediatory roles that contributed to most of the indirect effects. Our findings indicate a potential mechanism to understand the role of self-control in reducing bullying behaviour in MAP adolescents. Based on our findings, regular martial arts training is recommended as a physical education curriculum in school. 

Ting-Ting Xu

Papers

The relationship between academic stress and adolescents’ problematic smartphone usage

The Effect of Education Level on Mobile Phone Use and Successful Aging among the Elderly — Take Xiamen City as an Example

The effects of self-control on bullying behaviour among martial arts practicing adolescents: based on the analyses of multiple mediation effects