Technology-mediated addictive behaviors constitute a spectrum of related yet distinct conditions: A network perspective.

Abstract

An important ongoing debate in the addiction field is whether certain technology-mediated behaviors constitute tenable and independent constructs. This study investigated whether problematic technology-mediated behaviors could be conceptualized as a spectrum of related, yet distinct disorders (spectrum hypothesis), using the network approach, which considers disorders as networks of symptoms. We used data from the Cohort Study on Substance Use and Risk Factors (C-SURF; Swiss National Science Foundation), with a representative sample of young Swiss men (subsample of participants engaged in technology-mediated behaviors, = 3,404). Four technology-mediated addictive behaviors were investigated using symptoms derived from the (5th ed.) and the component model of addiction: Internet, smartphone, gaming, and cybersex. Network analyses included network estimation and visualization, community detection tests, and centrality indices. The network analysis identified four distinct clusters corresponding to each condition, but only Internet addiction had numerous relationships with the other behaviors. This finding, along with the finding that there were few relationships between the other behaviors, suggests that smartphone addiction, gaming addiction, and cybersex addiction are relatively independent constructs. Internet Addiction was often connected with other conditions through the same symptoms, suggesting that it could be conceptualized as an "umbrella construct," that is, a common vector that mediates specific online behaviors. The network analysis thus provides a preliminary support to the spectrum hypothesis and the focus on the specific activities performed online, while showing that the construct of Internet addiction is inadequate. (PsycINFO Database Record

Relationship between problematic Internet use and age at initial weekly Internet use

“…However, it has been argued that the concept of IA lacks academic rigor. For example, Baggio et al (2018) identified that IA was related to other behavioral addictions (smartphone addiction, gaming addiction, and cybersex addiction), but the latter were relatively independent constructs. Therefore, due to this connection, between IA and independent constructs, IA could be conceptualized as an "umbrella construct."…”

Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Problematic Social Media Use Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction

“…Despite the growing body of literature examining the associations between childhood traumatic experiences with problematic internet use (e.g., Dalbudak et al 2014;Koronczai et al 2013;Schimmenti et al 2017), little is known about the effects of these adverse experiences on problematic social media use (PSMU). Although internet-related disorders overlap with each other up to some point (Montag et al 2015), individuals typically display distinct forms of specific internet-use disorders that should be considered independently from one another (Baggio et al 2018;Balakrishnan and Griffiths 2017;Brand et al 2016;Kırcaburun and Griffiths 2018).…”

Associations between symptoms of problematic smartphone, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram use: An item-level exploratory graph analysis perspective

“…The results of this study suggest that PSU could be, in fact, a reflection of active communication based platform use, instead of being a problematic phenomenon in itself. While there is some evidence that PSU could differ from other behavioral addictions, such as online gambling and cybersex disorder (e.g., see Baggio et al 2018), our study was the first to include several SNS platforms and PSU into a comprehensive EGA. The results are novel, since they demonstrate on itemlevel data that while PFU and PIU are likely problematic phenomena in themselves, the overlap between PSU and PWU suggests that perhaps engagement in text-messaging app use could drive higher smartphone use.…”

“…The answer to the third research question (R3) allows to see whether these four measured conditions have significant overlap across symptoms, indicating to a more generalized problematic digital technology use, or if the items across platforms cluster together due to medium/media as the common denominator (as opposed to specific symptoms). The latter research question has not been studied in the domain of PSU and specific SNS, but Baggio et al (2018) found that PSU, gaming disorder, and cybersex addiction are relatively independent conditions, while problematic Internet use was associated with all these conditions. The results could show if seemingly different platform-based problematic use symptoms are actually overlapping with PSU or not.…”