“A Cancer in the Minds of Youth?” A Qualitative Study of Problematic Smartphone Use among Undergraduate Students

Abstract

There is empirical evidence to suggest that problematic smartphone use (PSU) is associated with mental health problems including anxiety in educational settings. This qualitative study explored attitudes towards-and self-reported impacts of-smartphone use among British young adult students, as well as perceived causes of PSU. Freeresponse written accounts were gathered from 265 British undergraduates at an English university. Open-ended questions were asked about their attitudes towards smartphone use, their reasons for using their smartphones, and what they perceived as the consequences of their smartphone use. Narratives were analyzed using framework analysis and a thematic framework was identified. The three main consequences of PSU described by participants were (1) uncontrolled frequent checking of smartphones, (2) using smartphones late at night, and irrelevant use of smartphones in class. The main reported explanations for PSU were fear of missing messages, boredom in class, poor selfregulation, and external reasons (e.g., boring lectures). Smartphone use was reported to have both positive and negative impacts on young adults' life satisfaction, social relationships, physical health, and study. Many participants reported that they need to develop better self-regulation to address their PSU. Findings suggest that smartphone use can have benefits as well as potentially causing harm among university students. PSU can-in some cases-be understood as reflecting mental well-being issues, poor self-regulation, and social problems. Keywords Student smartphone use. Problematic smartphone use. Smartphone addiction. Perceptions of smartphone use Smartphones have become ubiquitous in modern society, and young adults appear to be particularly heavy users of them (including the UK where the present study was carried out). The number of smartphone users globally is predicted to reach 2.5 billion in 2019, up

A test of the pathway model of problematic smartphone use

“…Data were collected via self-report measures and were cross-sectional, which precludes any causality statement. Recent studies have used a longitudinal design (Herrero, Torres, Vivas, & Urueña, 2019;Lapierre, Zhao, & Custer, 2019;Lee et al, 2020) or a qualitative approach (Yang, Asbury, & Griffiths, 2019) for the study of smartphone use/dependency or PSU, and further studies that use these alternative methodologies should be conducted to complement our approach. The present study focused on a specific demographic group (i.e., college students with regular access to the Internet, predominantly females), thus limiting the generalisability of our findings.…”

Quantifying smartphone “use”: Choice of measurement impacts relationships between “usage” and health.

“…Researchers, however, continue to conflate the measurement of smartphone usage with assessing an individual's appraisal of use. For example, defining or measuring PSU in relation to "overuse" or "excessive use" is prevalent in many articles (Elhai & Contractor, 2018;Elhai et al, 2020;Kim, 2017;Yang et al, 2019). This has foundations in the Behavioral Addictions framework, where tolerance is a key component (e.g., the need to increase use over time to get the same "fix") Elhai et al, 2017;Kim, 2017).…”

“…Although the benefits of interpersonal communication are well established (Berkman et al, 2000), most research concerning the relationship between communication, technology, and health has focused on the "negative consequences" of smartphone use and screen time with a strong focus on mental health (Elhai et al, 2017), and sedentary behaviors (Zagalaz-Sánchez et al, 2019). Often referred to as "problematic smartphone use" (PSU) or "smartphone addiction" (Elhai et al, 2017), these refer to the perceived undesirable sideeffects of use, which are mirrored in public discourse (Genc, 2014;Yang et al, 2019). However, there is a growing acknowledgement that the majority of research linking any screen time behaviors to health outcomes are themselves problematic (Science and Technology Committee, U.K.…”

Problematic Smartphone Use in Spanish and Italian University Students

“…In such a context, it is important to stress that some of the symptoms that could lead us to identify the excessive use of smartphones with addictive behaviour are strongly influenced by some of the subjects' processes and psychological characteristics, such as impulsiveness, extroversion and neuroticism [44][45][46][47][48]. Other authors-such Elhai, Gallinari, Rozgonujk and Yang [49], and Yang, Asbury and Griffiths [50]-however, argue that the purpose for which the device is used-social or non-social-and a lack of self-control may be decisive factors regarding its being used in the wrong way.…”