Based on a Decision Tree Model for Exploring the Risk Factors of Smartphone Addiction Among Children and Adolescents in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: Smartphone addiction has emerged as a major concern among children and adolescents over the past few decades and may be heightened by the outbreak of COVID-19, posing a threat to their physical and mental health. Then we aimed to develop a decision tree model as a screening tool for unrecognized smartphone addiction by conducting large sample investigation in mainland China.Methods: The data from cross-sectional investigation of smartphone addiction among children and adolescents in mainland China (n = 3,615) was used to build models of smartphone addiction by employing logistic regression, visualized nomogram, and decision tree analysis.Results: Smartphone addiction was found in 849 (23.5%) of the 3,615 respondents. According to the results of logistic regression, nomogram, and decision tree analyses, Internet addiction, hours spend on smartphone during the epidemic, levels of clinical anxiety symptoms, fear of physical injury, and sex were used in predictive model of smartphone addiction among children and adolescents. The C-index of the final adjusted model of logistic regression was 0.804. The classification accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and AUC area of decision tree for detecting smartphone addiction were 87.3, 71.4, 92.1, 73.5, 91.4, and 0.884, respectively.Conclusions: It was found that the incidence of smartphone addiction among children and adolescents is significant during the epidemic. The decision tree model can be used to screen smartphone addiction among them. Findings of the five risk factors will help researchers and parents assess the risk of smartphone addiction quickly and easily.

The Impact of Adolescent Resilience on Mobile Phone Addiction During COVID-19 Normalization and Flooding in China: A Chain Mediating

“…Problem-focused coping strategies directly target the source of stress, prompting individuals to use positive coping styles to deal with the adverse consequences of the pandemic. Conversely, avoidance, denial, and fantasy employed as coping styles in dealing with stress are potentially strong risk factors for smartphone addiction ( Stahl and Caligiuri, 2005 ; Duan et al, 2021 ). Therefore, adolescents with low levels of psychological resilience may experience tension, anxiety, depression, and other emotions in the face of emergencies or stressors.…”

Dominance or Integration? Influence of Sexual Dimorphism and Clothing Color on Judgments of Male and Female Targets' Attractiveness, Warmth, and Competence

“…This is consistent with gender stereotypes, and competence is more closely related to males than females. What’s more, data were collected during the COVID-19, in this period, people isolated at home because of serious epidemic, this may increase people’s fear of anxiety and physical injury, further exacerbating their overall anxiety levels (Blasi et al, 2019 ; Duan et al, 2021 ), White is considered positive and related to purity, cleanliness, and simplicity (Saito, 1996 ), and they can effectively alleviate negative emotions like tension, depression, and panic (Wang et al, 2018a , 2018b ), which matches people's emotional needs during the epidemic period (Hosen et al, 2021 ; Kayis et al, 2021 ). Besides, for female participants, there was no significant difference in the evaluation of feminization/masculinization of faces of targets wearing different clothing color.…”

The role of loneliness and aggression on smartphone addiction among university students

“…Especially with the outbreak of COVID-19, the increase in the use of mobile phones, especially with the COVID-19 epidemic, causes physical and mental health problems in individuals. Indeed, it has been stated in the literature that the frequency of smartphone addiction among individuals is high during the epidemic period (Duan et al, 2021 ; Kayis et al, 2021 ). Smartphones are a popular tool especially for school and university students in terms of their use of the internet, social media, and communication purposes.…”