The popularity of smartphones is undeniable in nearly all facets of society. Despite the many benefits attributed to the technology, concern has grown over the potential for excessive smartphone use to become problematic in nature. Due to the growing concerns surrounding the recognized and unrecognized implications of smartphone use, great efforts have been made through research to evaluate, label and identify problematic smartphone use mostly through the development and administration of scales assessing the behavior. This study examines 78 existing validated scales that have been developed over the past 13 years to measure, identify or characterize excessive or problematic smartphone use by evaluating their theoretical foundations and their psychometric properties. Our review determined that, despite an abundance of self-report scales examining the construct, many published scales lack sufficient internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Additionally, there is a lack of research supporting the theoretical foundation of many of the scales evaluated. Future research is needed to better characterize problematic smartphone use so that assessment tools can be more efficiently developed to evaluate the behavior in order to avoid the excessive publication of seemingly redundant assessment tools.
While research consistently supports the negative impact of thinness pressures on body image, this work has primarily utilized White samples in the United States, limiting generalizability to other ethnicities. Further, limited research has examined ethnic differences in thinness pressures from distinct sociocultural influences. This study examined distinct sources of thinness pressures in 598 White, 135 Black, and 131 Hispanic college women in the United States. Mean levels of thinness pressures significantly differed across ethnicity, with Black women generally reporting the lowest levels of each pressure. Additionally, distinct sources of thinness pressures were more highly related to negative outcomes within ethnic groups. For White women, each source was salient for disordered eating. For Black women, family pressure was particularly salient for appearance evaluation. For Hispanic women, family pressure was particularly salient for disordered eating and appearance evaluation. Findings suggest possible ethnic differences in the relative salience of some pressures over others.
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