Addictive use of digital devices in young children: Associations with delay discounting, self-control and academic performance

Abstract

The use of smartphones, tablets and laptops/PCs has become ingrained in adults’ and increasingly in children’s lives, which has sparked a debate about the risk of addiction to digital devices. Previous research has linked specific use of digital devices (e.g. online gaming, smartphone screen time) with impulsive behavior in the context of intertemporal choice among adolescents and adults. However, not much is known about children’s addictive behavior towards digital devices and its relationship to personality factors and academic performance. This study investigated the associations between addictive use of digital devices, self-reported usage duration, delay discounting, self-control and academic success in children aged 10 to 13. Addictive use of digital devices was positively related to delay discounting, but self-control confounded the relationship between the two variables. Furthermore, self-control and self-reported usage duration but not the degree of addictive use predicted the most recent grade average. These findings indicate that children’s problematic behavior towards digital devices compares to other maladaptive behaviors (e.g. substance abuse, pathological gambling) in terms of impulsive choice and point towards the key role self-control seems to play in lowering a potential risk of digital addiction.

Cognitive Ability and Self-Control’s Influence on High School Students’ Comprehensive Academic Performance

“…Cognitive ability and self-control are always important factors affecting students' academic performance (Liang et al, 2020), especially since the adoption of online teaching in the postpandemic era. Self-control has become a key factor affecting students' academic performance (Schulz, 2021), but it is not clear how cognitive ability and self-control together affect the comprehensive academic performance of students. This research takes high school students' individual-level cognitive abilities and class-level self-control abilities as the research variables, and explores the mechanism of their influence on comprehensive academic performance and the impact of their interaction on comprehensive academic performance.…”

Parents support to the social development of school-age children who use smartphone

“…This study provides a different perspective that smartphone is instrumental support for parents for children's social development. However, students are required to have self-regulation in using smartphone [34]. The extensive use of smartphone may create distance among peers.…”

Dijital Oyun Bağımlılık Eğilimi ve Ebeveyn Rehberlik Stratejileri Ölçeklerinin Geliştirilmesi

“…A child can interact with digital tools for hours and play digital play as long as the parent allows (Alter, 2018). Due to the lack of a fully standardized definition of the concept of digital play addiction (Schulz van Endert, 2021), it was thought that the use of digital play addiction tendency would be more appropriate when talking about children's digital play addictions throughout this research. It aims to intervene when children are young and in digital interaction processes, possibly in the future, rather than labeling them digital play addicts.…”