Background Smartphone ownership has increased among teens within the last decade, with up to 89% of adolescents owning a smartphone and engaging daily with the online world through it. Although the results of recent meta-analyses suggest that engaging digital technology plays only a small role in adolescent well-being, parents, professionals, and policymakers remain concerned about the impact that the instant connectivity of smartphones has on adolescent well-being. Objective Herein, we introduce the protocol of a research study investigating the associations between adolescent smartphone use and different facets of well-being (social, physical, and psychological), with the aim to apply innovative methods to address the limitations of existing empirical studies. Methods This 12-month prospective study of adolescents uses a repeated measurement-burst design with the ecological momentary assessment methodology. Adolescents (N=203; age range 13-17 years) complete baseline assessments through online questionnaires, four 14-day intensive data collection bursts, and an online questionnaire at the end of the study. As part of the 4 measurement bursts, adolescent smartphone behavior is assessed objectively by passive data collection of smartphone data logs and through self-reports in short questionnaires administered via a custom-built Android app. Results The protocol describes the study objectives, research tools (including the development of the Android app and specialized software), and process (including pilot studies, the main study, and targets for machine learning approaches). Two of the 203 enrolled participants provided no data during the first data collection burst of the main study. Preliminary analyses of the data from the first data collection burst indicated an acceptable level of compliance (72.25%) with the daily questionnaires. The design of the study will allow for the assessment of both within- and between-person variabilities in smartphone behavior, as well as short-term variation and long-term change in smartphone behavior and how it impacts the indicators of social, physical, and psychological well-being. Conclusions The innovative methods applied in this study (objective smartphone logs, ecological momentary assessment, and machine learning) will allow for a more nuanced assessment of the links between smartphone use and well-being, informing strategies to help adolescents navigate the online world more constructively in terms of the development of their physical, social, and psychological well-being. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/35984
BACKGROUND Smartphone ownership has increased among teens within the last decade, with up to 89% of adolescents owning a smartphone and through it engaging daily with the online world. Although the results of recent meta-analyses suggest that engaging digital technology plays only a small role in adolescent wellbeing, parents, professionals, and policy makers remain concerned about the impact that the instant connectivity of smartphones has on adolescent wellbeing. OBJECTIVE Herein, we introduce the protocol of a research study investigating the associations between adolescent smartphone use and different facets of well-being (social, physical, psychological) that aims to apply innovative methods to address limitations of existing empirical studies. METHODS This 12-month prospective study of adolescents uses a repeated measurement-burst design with Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methodology. Adolescents (N=203; age range 13-17) complete baseline assessments through online questionnaires, four 14-day intensive data collection bursts, and an online questionnaire at the end of the study. As part of the four measurement bursts, adolescent smartphone behavior is assessed objectively by passive data collection of smartphone data logs and through self-reports in short questionnaires administered via a custom-built Android app. RESULTS The protocol describes the study objectives, research tools (including the development of the Android app and specialized software) and process (including pilot studies the main study, and targets for machine learning approaches). The design of the study will allow for the assessment of both within- and between-person variability in smartphone behavior, as well as short-term variation and long-term change in smartphone behavior and how it impacts indicators of social, physical, and psychological wellbeing. Preliminary analyses of the data from the first data collection burst of the main study indicate acceptable level of compliance (72.25%) with the daily questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS The innovative methods applied in this study (objective smartphone logs, EMA, machine learning) will allow for a more nuanced assessment of the links between smartphone use and wellbeing, informing strategies to help adolescents navigate the online world more constructively in terms of the development of their physical, social and psychological wellbeing.
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