An Explorative Model to Assess Individuals’ Phubbing Risk

Abstract

Phubbing could be defined as a new form of addiction; however, checking the phone and ignoring the speaker could also be linked to the increased availability of virtual social environments. We developed a multidimensional model for phubbing considering psychological dimensions and information and communication technology related habits. We collected data through online questionnaires and surveys. The best model obtained from our data was constituted by Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs) usage behaviours, Trait Anxiety, Virtual Sense of Community and Neuroticism. Finally, our study confirmed a strong connection between phubbing and online addiction behaviours.

Well-Being and Social Media: A Systematic Review of Bergen Addiction Scales

“…For instance, a score below 13 in WHO-5 indicates poor well-being and is an indication for testing for depression [81,82]. In this sense, the instrument's lower bound appears able to capture and distinguish pathological individuals, which may use Facebook or social media in a dysfunctional way [10,83].…”

“…To put it simply, positive and negative framed well-being measures seems characterized by a different sensitivity towards psychopathology, and in particular with anxiety and depression diseases, which have been already connected with a dysfunctional use of social media [10,83]. Thus, this may be the reason behind the different magnitudes of the correlation between BFAS/BSMAS and well-being measured considering positive or negative frames.…”

“…Given the attractiveness and availability of social media, people are becoming more and more connected to them both in terms of engagement (e.g., time spent) and presence (e.g., SNs accounts owned) [10][11][12]. In other words, social media are becoming a "normal" part of our contemporary lives [13].…”

Families and Social Media Use: The Role of Parents’ Perceptions about Social Media Impact on Family Systems in the Relationship between Family Collective Efficacy and Open Communication

“…On the other hand, the connectedness allowed by mobile devices and social media needs to be negotiated in times, spaces, and occasions where it is allowed, and the chances to perpetually communicate need to be modulated [41]. A risk arising from the lack of modulation and negotiation about social media and mobile devices use, which could impact family relationships and dynamics, seems related to the phubbing phenomenon, i.e., ignoring someone in a social environment by paying attention to mobile devices instead (e.g., interrupting a meal while eating together to check the phone for messages or missed calls) [42,43]. Altogether, the arrangements needed to avoid these kinds of risks and modulating mobile devices use in times, spaces, and occasions could cause conflicts within families [35,39,41,[44][45][46], as parents who are more worried about social media impacts can exert a greater control over their children's use [47][48][49], making adolescents get the perception of being hyper-controlled by their parents, that in turn can increase the level of conflict and aggressive communications.…”

Phubbing: Perceptions, reasons behind, predictors, and impacts

“…Frequent phubbing of people in relationships has also been associated with higher levels of depression (X. Wang, Xie, Wang, Wang, & Lei, ). The second aspect is the predictors of phubbing with the literature highlighting a number of predictors, including internet addiction, lack of self‐control, fear of missing out (Chotpitayasunondh & Douglas, ; Davey et al, ; Franchina, Vanden Abeele, van Rooij, Lo Coco, & De Marez, ), technological addictions, such as, smartphone addiction, SMS addiction and social media addiction, (Davey et al, ; Karadağ et al, ), neuroticism, social anxiety, and trait anxiety (Guazzini, Duradoni, Capelli, & Meringolo, ).…”