Problematic smartphone use in a large nationally representative sample: Age, reporting biases, and technology concerns

Abstract

This study utilized data from a nationally representative sample of Australian adults (n =1164; 50.7% female; age M = 44.9 years, SD = 16.3) to examine the relationships between age, technology concerns, self-rated and objective amount of smartphone use, and problematic smartphone use. Participants completed measures of problematic smartphone use and technology concern, while amount of smartphone use was self-rated and objectively measured using smartphone screen time reporting tools (Screen Time for iOS and Digital Wellbeing for Android). Amount of self-rated and objective smartphone use declined linearly with age. In contrast, problematic smartphone use was relatively high and stable in young adults before rapidly declining around age 40. People were reasonably good at estimating their amount of smartphone use (r = .73), although they did tend to underestimate usage. Technology concern was high across all ages, but unrelated to amount of usage and problematic smartphone usage. Age related differences are interpreted in terms of a combination of developmental and generational changes. Results also suggest that amount of use is an important but not complete cause of problematic smartphone use.

Sex, age, and smartphone addiction across 41 countries

“…The shape of the age-related decline varied by country (Figure 1), consistent with the results of other studies. In Australia, for example, scores remained fairly stable until around age 40, after which they declined; this pattern was also seen in a representative sample from the same country (Horwood et al, 2021). Hungary, in contrast, showed a peak in young adulthood followed by a slower decline, consistent with another study (Csibi et al, 2019).…”

“…Although there have been thousands of studies on problematic smartphone use, international comparisons across the lifespan remain scarce. Studies tend to rely on convenience samples of local university students and neglect older populations (Busch & McCarthy, 2021;Horwood et al, 2021) despite their different patterns of phone use (Andone et al, 2016;Nahas et al, 2018). The studies that do capture broad demographics are often difficult to compare given the variety of different scales and criteria used to assess problematic use (Abendroth et al, 2020;Davidson et al, 2020;Gutiérrez et al, 2016;Harris et al, 2020).…”

The Roles of Primary Emotional Systems and Need Satisfaction in Problematic Internet and Smartphone Use: A Network Perspective

“…We first estimated a Gaussian graphical model (GGM; Epskamp et al, 2018b) using the summed scores for PSU and PIU, primary emotional systems, and need satisfaction variables, and age (control variable). Since (younger) age has been shown to be related to be associated with more problematic digital technology use (Horwood et al, 2021), as well as differences in (some of the) primary emotional systems and need satisfaction-life outcomes links (Weman-Josefsson et al, 2015;Wörtler et al, 2020), it would be natural to control the network model for age.…”

Associations Between Nature Exposure, Screen Use, and Parent-Child Relations: a Scoping Review Protocol.

“…Negatively framed screenrelated messaging can often evoke feelings of parental guilt that may corrode parental self-e cacy beliefs. (5) Positively framed messaging may be a more effective determinant of behaviour change than messaging that evokes negative emotions. (10) In a digitally evolving world, where exposure to screen devices in inevitable, there is a need to shift away from messages focused solely on screen time and focus on encouraging both positive screen uses and positive parenting interventions that may have direct and indirect impacts on screen-related child behaviours.…”

“…(1-3) National screen time guidelines recommend that parents limit their children's exposure to screen devices(4) however novel ndings reveal that parents struggle to uphold their ideal screen time limits despite knowledge of the harms and intention to reduce their child's screen use. (5) During early-late childhood, the interaction between parent and child is inter-dependent and bidirectional.…”