Relationships between Smartphone Addiction and Smartphone Usage Types, Depression, ADHD, Stress, Interpersonal Problems, and Parenting Attitude with Middle School Students

Abstract

Background The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between smartphone addiction of middle school students and smartphone usage types, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), stress, interpersonal problems, and parenting attitude. In particular, we wanted to find out how smartphone usage types predict smartphone addiction when controlling depression, ADHD, perceived stress, interpersonal problems, and parenting attitudes, which are the main predictors of existing smartphone addiction in this study. Methods The subjects of this study included 487 local middle school students (253 girls and 234 boys). The measurement instruments used were the smartphone addiction scale, patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Korean ADHD rating scales (K-ARS), perceived stress scale (PSS), Short form of the Korean-inventory of interpersonal problems circumplex scales (KIIP-SC), and the parenting attitude scale. We identified the relationships between the variables with correlation analysis and examined the predictors of smartphone addiction with hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Result The factors that influence smartphone addiction were sex (β = 3.14, P < 0.01), stress (β = 2.99, P < 0.01), and interpersonal problems (β = 3.81, P < 0.001). In addition, when the confounding variables of smartphone addiction were controlled to examine the effects of smartphone usage types on smartphone addiction, social network service (SNS) (β = 2.66, P < 0.01) and music/videos (β = 2.73, P < 0.01) were found to significantly positively affect smartphone addiction, whereas study (β = −2.54, P < 0.05) had a significantly negatively effect. And these factors explained 29.5% of the variance in smartphone addiction. Conclusion The order of the usage types with the highest influence on smartphone addiction was: enjoying music/videos, SNS, and study. This suggests that selective intervention depending on the main smartphone usage type can be effective.

Gender-Based Differences and Associated Factors Surrounding Excessive Smartphone Use Among Adolescents: Cross-sectional Study

“…The relationship between ADHD and excessive smartphone use has been previously established [ 1 , 2 , 28 , 29 ]. The mechanism is thought to act through the lack of social interactions with others, a key characteristic in patients with ADHD, who concordantly feel a stronger need to be assured by and connected to others.…”

The Role of Motivation Systems, Anxiety, and Low Self-Control in Smartphone Addiction among Smartphone-Based Social Networking Service (SNS) Users

“…As smartphones have emerged as a major way of communicating, learning, and entertaining [ 3 ], smartphones have become indispensable in our lives. The appropriate use of smartphones benefits users by offering various learning, communicating, and entertaining opportunities regardless of time and place [ 4 ]. However, in conjunction with the rapid growth of smartphone users, heavier engagement with smartphones, known as ‘smartphone addiction,’ has emerged as a significant social problem, which negatively impacts the physical, psychological, or social aspects of life [ 5 ].…”

“…A recent review article on addictive smartphone usage has documented that the prevalence of smartphone addiction rate was ranged from 10% to 30% [ 6 ]. Though an official clinical diagnosis does not yet exist in the 5th Edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), smartphone addiction has been regarded as a behavioral addiction that mirrors addiction symptomatology, including excessive dependence, obsessive use, withdrawal, and irresistible use despite undesirable outcomes [ 4 ]. However, it is still controversial whether it is appropriate to apply the word “addiction” to problematic smartphone use [ 5 ].…”

“…While research on addictive smartphone use has been prolific, it has been argued that smartphone users do not become addicted to the device itself but to the use of specific applications [ 4 , 7 , 8 ]. Recent studies have indicated some application contents are more likely to have a significant impact on addictive smartphone use than others [ 7 , 9 ].…”

“…That is, similar to alcoholics who are not addicted to a bottle but to drinks inside of the bottle [ 10 ], heavy smartphone users are also not addicted to their smartphone devices but the media properties of applications that they use. Among the numerous content types of smartphone use, Social Networking Service (SNS) has emerged as the most influential platform, which can lead users to addictive smartphone use [ 4 , 7 , 11 , 12 ]. SNS is a relationship-oriented application such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or WeChat, which enable users to create a personal profile, update their status, and sharing content to manage their social relationships [ 10 ].…”