The Matthew Effect in Recovery from Smartphone Addiction in a 6-Month Longitudinal Study of Children and Adolescents

Abstract

<jats:p>The clinical course of problematic smartphone use (PSU) remains largely unknown due to a lack of longitudinal studies. We recruited 193 subjects with smartphone addiction problems for the present study. After providing informed consent, the subjects completed surveys and underwent comprehensive interviews regarding smartphone usage. A total of 56 subjects among the 193 initially recruited subjects were followed up for six months. We compared baseline characteristics between persistent addicted users and recovered users at the end of the 6-month follow-up. Persistent problematic smartphone users displayed higher baseline smartphone addiction severity and were more prone to develop mental health problems at the follow-up. However, baseline depressive or anxiety status did not significantly influence the course of PSU. PSU behaved more like an addictive disorder rather than a secondary psychiatric disorder. Harm avoidance, impulsivity, higher Internet use, and less conversation time with mothers were identified as poor prognostic factors in PSU. Lower quality of life, low perceived happiness, and goal instability also contributed to persistent PSU, while recovery increased these scores as well as measures of self-esteem. These findings suggest that the Matthew effect is found in the recovery of PSU with better premorbid psychosocial adjustment leading to a more successful recovery. Greater clinical resources are required for interventions in vulnerable populations to modify the course of this increasingly prevalent problematic behavior worldwide.</jats:p>

A test of the pathway model of problematic smartphone use

“…Data were collected via self-report measures and were cross-sectional, which precludes any causality statement. Recent studies have used a longitudinal design (Herrero, Torres, Vivas, & Urueña, 2019;Lapierre, Zhao, & Custer, 2019;Lee et al, 2020) or a qualitative approach (Yang, Asbury, & Griffiths, 2019) for the study of smartphone use/dependency or PSU, and further studies that use these alternative methodologies should be conducted to complement our approach. The present study focused on a specific demographic group (i.e., college students with regular access to the Internet, predominantly females), thus limiting the generalisability of our findings.…”

Predictors of Habitual and Addictive Smartphone Behavior in Problematic Smartphone Use

“…Consistent with our findings, many studies have reported a positive association between sleep deprivation and PSU or between poor sleep quality and PSU [ 18 , 22 , 43 ]. Sleep problems such as bedtime phone usage before sleep may not only contribute to the onset of PSU but was shown to act as a prognostic factor for PSU recover [ 44 ]. These results support the hypothesis that smartphone use affects sleep patterns, for example, through light stimulation, which would therefore explain the addictive SB increasing sleep deprivation.…”

Effect of Maternal Factors on Problematic Smartphone Use among Elementary School Children

“…Another previous study suggested that the quantity and quality of family conversations affected individual PSU [38]. In addition, adolescents who spend significant amounts of time talking with their mothers are more likely to avoid PSU [39]. The current study results indicate that avoiding negative mother-child communication is important to ensure children's correct smartphone use.…”