Prevalence of Problematic Mobile Phone Use in British Adolescents

Abstract

The problematic use of mobile phones among adolescents has not been widely studied. There are very few instruments for assessing potential technological addiction to mobile phones, or for categorizing different types of users or uses. The most widely used scale is the Mobile Phone Problem Use Scale (MPPUS), which is used to study adult populations, and has been applied in various forms in international contexts. The aims of this study were to adapt the Spanish version of this scale (MPPUSA) to British adolescents, and then to estimate the prevalence of possible problematic users. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1,529 secondary school pupils aged between 11 and 18 years, with 1,026 completed questionnaires being collected. The analysis showed that the factor and construct validity and reliability were comparable to those obtained in previous studies. The prevalence of problematic users among the students was 10%, and the typical problematic user tended to be an adolescent between 11 and 14 years old, studying in a public school, who considered themselves to be an expert user of this technology, who made extensive use of his/her mobile phone, and who attributed the same problem of use among their peers. These users presented notable scores in all the symptoms covered by the scale used to assess problematic use. In conclusion, the adaptation of the MPPUSA as a screening scale for British adolescents presents good sensitivity and specificity for detecting the main addictive symptoms proposed in this validated version.

Problematic mobile phone use in adolescents: derivation of a short scale MPPUS-10

“…It is clearly more convenient since it consists only of 10 items which saves time and is likely to reduce the number of missing items. Our item selection criteria focussed particularly on creating a questionnaire suitable for research in adolescents, which is important considering the high amount of mobile phone use stated for this age group in different studies using different methods for assessment (Ha et al 2008;Lopez-Fernandez et al 2014;Martinotti et al 2011).…”

“…The MPPUS-27 is frequently used in research on problematic mobile phone use (Izdebski and Kotyśko 2013;Lopez-Fernandez et al 2014;LopezFernandez et al 2011;Richardson 2012). The scale shows excellent internal consistency (Cronbach`s α > 0.9) and is validated in an adult sample through comparison with general mobile phone usage behaviour and the Addiction Potential Scale (APS) of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2).…”

Types of smartphone usage and relations with problematic smartphone behaviors: The role of content consumption vs. social smartphone use

“…One study found that problematic smartphone use was related to process but not social usage (van Deursen et al, 2015), while another study found the opposite (Zhitomirsky-Geffet & Blau, 2016). Other research has found that social usage was substantially more prevalent than process use among problematic smartphone users (Lee et al, 2014;Lopez-Fernandez, Honrubia-Serrano, Freixa-Blanxart, & Gibson, 2014); a finding also revealed in problem internet users (Chou & Hsiao, 2000;Yang & Tung, 2007). Finally, another study revealed that problematic smartphone use was related to both process and social use, but the association was stronger for process use .…”

Smartphone Addiction and Associated Psychological Factors

“…In fact, they are viewed as a mandatory device within industrialized cultures (Kwon et al, 2013). However, there is evidence to suggest that there is an over-dependence on smartphones that can lead to destructive public health inferences (Monk, Carroll, Parker, & Blythe, 2004;Palen, Salzman, & Youngs, 2001;Paragras, 2005;Sarwar, 2013), including antisocial feelings of rejection within families (Rosman, 2006) and negative clinical health implications (Shin & Dey, 2013) such as addiction (Lopez-Fernandez, Honrubia-Serrano et al, 2013). Rosen, Cheever, and Carrier (2012) defined negative relationships between psychological health and technology overuse as an "iDisorder."…”