Experiential Avoidance and Technological Addictions in Adolescents

Abstract

Background and aimsThis study focuses on the use of popular information and communication technologies (ICTs) by adolescents: the Internet, mobile phones, and video games. The relationship of ICT use and experiential avoidance (EA), a construct that has emerged as underlying and transdiagnostic to a wide variety of psychological problems, including behavioral addictions, is examined. EA refers to a self-regulatory strategy involving efforts to control or escape from negative stimuli such as thoughts, feelings, or sensations that generate strong distress. This strategy, which may be adaptive in the short term, is problematic if it becomes an inflexible pattern. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore whether EA patterns were associated with addictive or problematic use of ICT in adolescents.MethodsA total of 317 students of the Spanish southeast between 12 and 18 years old were recruited to complete a questionnaire that included questions about general use of each ICTs, an experiential avoidance questionnaire, a brief inventory of the Big Five personality traits, and specific questionnaires on problematic use of the Internet, mobile phones, and video games.ResultsCorrelation analysis and linear regression showed that EA largely explained results regarding the addictive use of the Internet, mobile phones, and video games, but not in the same way. As regards gender, boys showed a more problematic use of video games than girls. Concerning personality factors, conscientiousness was related to all addictive behaviors.Discussion and conclusionsWe conclude that EA is an important construct that should be considered in future models that attempt to explain addictive behaviors.

Problematic Use of the Internet and Smartphones in University Students: 2006–2017

“…For both CERI and CERM, the scores were calculated by adding up the answers to all the items, to a maximum of 40 points; cut-off points were established in a former study [ 42 ]. CERI and CERM have been used in several studies on adolescents’ excessive Internet and mobile phone use [ 19 , 43 ].…”

El papel de la personalidad en el juego problemático y en las preferencias de géneros de videojuegos en adolescentes

“…Muy pocos estudios han explorado la relación entre las dimensiones del FFM y el juego problemático en preadolescentes y adolescentes. En estas edades, el juego problemático se ha asociado, de forma consistente, con baja responsabilidad (García-Oliva y Piqueras, 2016;Vollmer, Randler, Horzum y Ayas, 2014;Wang, Ho, Chan y Tse, 2015). No obstante, los resultados son menos concluyentes en relación a otras áreas del FFM: dos estudios lo han asociado con baja extraversión (García-Oliva y Piqueras, 2016; Vollmer y cols., 2014), mientras que solo un estudio lo ha asociado con baja amabilidad, alto neuroticismo (Vollmer y cols., 2014) y baja apertura a la experiencia (Wang y cols., 2015).…”

Personality and Video Games: The role of personality in normal and disordered videogaming, motives to play, and aggression

“…However, the examination of these relationships among adolescents is scarce. In this sense, problematic video gaming among teenagers was associated with low conscientiousness (García-Oliva & Piqueras, 2016;) and, to a lesser extent, to low extraversion (García-Oliva & Piqueras, 2016;. These studies suggest that neuroticism may play a more important role on problematic gaming in adulthood, whereas extraversion would become important in teenagers.…”

“…Furthermore, the relationships between pathological gaming and personality could be moderated by gender. As far as we know, only one study tested this, finding no significant associations in girls (García-Oliva & Piqueras, 2016).…”

“…With regard to adolescents, the association between FFM traits and disordered gaming has been scarcely explored. At these ages, disordered gaming has been related to low conscientiousness (García-Oliva & Piqueras, 2016;) and low extraversion (García-Oliva & Piqueras, 2016;. In addition, low agreeableness, high neuroticism and low openness ) displayed inconsistent findings.…”