Understanding compulsive smartphone use: An empirical test of a flow-based model

Wellbeing and Problematic Smartphone Use: Serial Mediation of Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

The relationship between wellbeing and Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) has been explored in the past, however, the role of the potential mediators of this association is a relatively neglected area of research. Therefore, the current study examined mindfulness and self-compassion as mediators of the relationship between wellbeing and PSU in 220 university students. WHO-5 Wellbeing Index, Mindful Attention Awareness Scale- State, Self-Compassion Scale- Short form and Smartphone Addiction Scale- Short version were used for assessing wellbeing, mindfulness, self-compassion, and PSU respectively. Wellbeing had a direct and indirect effect on PSU. In addition, results supported a serial mediation model where wellbeing was found to influence PSU via mindfulness and self-compassion in a sequential manner. The results expanded the Compensatory Internet Use Theory (CIUT) to understand PSU and have implications for the management of PSU.

Users' willingness to adopt metaverse drawing on flow theory: An empirical study using PLS-SEM and FsQCA

As a rapidly developing information technology in recent years, the metaverse has significantly transformed how we live, learn, and work. In order to accelerate the use of metaverse technology and promote users' acceptance of the metaverse, this study constructs an integrated model based on flow theory and use and satisfaction theory, to further explore the factors affecting users' acceptance of the metaverse. A total of 265 valid questionnaires were obtained through a situational questionnaire survey. Considering the limitations of a single analysis technique, we use two methods to analyze the data. Among them, the symmetric PLS-SEM method is mainly used to analyze the effects of single variables, while the asymmetric fsQCA method is used to analyze the combined effects of variables. The PLS-SEM results manifest that flow experience, perceived risk, and personal innovation directly influence users' acceptance of the metaverse, while perceived cost has no effect. Simultaneously, interactivity, presence, and social presence indirectly affect users' acceptance of the metaverse, while informativeness and enjoyment have no indirect effect. Significantly, fsQCA unveiled five configurations resulting in a high user acceptance of the metaverse, as well as six configurations leading to a negative acceptance. The complementary findings from PLS-SEM and fsQCA offer valuable insights for both theoretical understanding and practical implementation.

COVID-19 victimization experience and university students' smartphone addiction: the mediating role of emotional intelligence

OBJECTIVES

During the post-COVID-19 era, everyone has the risk of contracting the virus and becoming the victims of COVID-19. Examining the relationship between the COVID-19 victimization experience and its effects is more urgent. The aim of present study is to propose a mediation model to investigate the association between COVID-19 victimization experience and smartphone addiction, and the mediating role of emotional intelligence.

METHODS

A online questionnaire including the COVID-19 Victimization Experience Scale, the Smartphone Addiction Scale, and the Emotional Intelligence Scale among Chinese university students, were employed in this study. Finally, 1154 valid questionnaires were collected. The reliability and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that all three scales had good reliability and validity.

RESULTS

Structural Equation Model (SEM) demonstrated that COVID-19 victimization experience significantly predicted smartphone addiction in university students, and emotional intelligence partially mediated the association between COVID-19 victimization experience and smartphone addiction. Bootstrap results furthermore tested the rigor of the mediating effect.

CONCLUSION

COVID-19 victimization experience was a important variables in predicting university students's martphone addiction, and emotional intelligence was a protective factor in decreasing the negative effect of COVID-19 victimization experience on addictive behaviors. It is suggested that instructors should integrate emotional intelligence training programs into mental health courses so as to improve students' emotional intelligence ability.

Flow Experience Is a Key Factor in the Likelihood of Adolescents' Problematic TikTok Use: The Moderating Role of Active Parental Mediation

TikTok use and overuse have grown rapidly in recent years among adolescents. However, risk factors for problematic TikTok use are still largely unknown. In addition, drawing on the flow theory and parental mediation theory, this study aims to examine how adolescents' perceptions of enjoyment, concentration, and time distortion affect their problematic TikTok use behavior. Further, we examined the moderating effect of active parental mediation. An online survey in China received responses from a sample of 633 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 (males: 51.2%; M_age = 15.00; DS = 0.975). Our findings showed that enjoyment was positively associated with concentration and, in turn, with time distortion. We also found significant positive effects of concentration and time distortion on problematic TikTok use. The effect of enjoyment, however, was non-significant, indicating that hedonic mood was not associated with problematic TikTok use. Out of the three moderated relationships examined in this study, only active parental control was found to be a significant moderator for the relationship between concentration and problematic TikTok use. The significant negative moderation result showed that as active parental mediation grows, the impact of adolescents' concentration on problematic TikTok use is reduced. Future research directions and implications are discussed.

Heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life and its relationship with personality and psychopathology: A latent profile analysis

BACKGROUND

The relationships between problematic smartphone use and psychological factors have been extensively investigated. However, previous studies generally used variable-centered approaches, which hinder an examination of the heterogeneity of smartphone impact on everyday life.

OBJECTIVE

In the present study, we capitalized on latent profile analysis to identify various classes of smartphone owners based on the impact associated with smartphone use (e.g., unregulated usage, preference for smartphone-mediated social relationships) and to compare these classes in terms of established psychological risk factors for problematic smartphone use.

METHOD

We surveyed 934 young adults with validated psychometric questionnaires to assess the impact of smartphones, psychopathological symptoms, self-esteem and impulsivity traits.

RESULTS

Smartphone users fall into four latent profiles: users with low smartphone impact, users with average smartphone impact, problematic smartphone users, and users favoring online interactions. Individuals distributed in the problematic smartphone user profile were characterized by heightened psychopathological symptoms (stress, anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive tendencies) and impulsivity traits. Moreover, users who preferred online interactions exhibited the highest symptoms of social anxiety and the lowest levels of self-esteem.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings further demonstrate the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of the impact of smartphone use, calling for tailored prevention and intervention strategies.

Anger and worry are related to problematic smartphone use: A cross-sectional examination of novel psychopathological constructs in a college-aged sample in the United Arab Emirates

Introduction

Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has consistently been shown to be associated with depression and anxiety. However, the association of PSU and psychological constructs beyond these two have rarely been subjected to examination. Worry and anger are transdiagnostic constructs that, given their conceptual similarity with depression and anxiety, may similarly evidence significant relationships with PSU.

Methods

To test these hypotheses, a sample of 264 college-aged students were recruited from a university in the United Arab Emirates. The sample ranged in age from 18 to 36 years (M = 21.51, SD = 2.99). Self-report measures of PSU, worry and anger were administered.

Results

Results revealed statistically significant associations with PSU, anger, and worry – these results were evident following correlational as well as regression analyses. Moreover, using a recommended cut-off score from the literature to identify participants scoring beyond the clinical threshold indicative of PSU, worry and anger scores were significantly higher in the clinical sub-group.

Conclusions

This study's results lend additional credibility to uses and gratifications theory and compensatory internet use theory as it appears that the excessive use of technologies may indeed serve the purpose of compensating for the management of emotional distress. Results are discussed within the context of these two theories.

The addiction behavior of short-form video app TikTok: The information quality and system quality perspective

TikTok has one of the most advanced algorithm systems and is the most addictive as compared to other social media platforms. While research on social media addiction is abundant, we know much less about how the TikTok information system environment affects users' internal states of enjoyment, concentration, and time distortion (which scholars define as the flow experience), which in turn influences their addiction behavior. To fill this gap, this study collects responses from 659 adolescents in China aged between 10 and 19 years old, and the data is then analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS). We find that the system quality has a stronger influence than information quality in determining adolescents' experience with TikTok and that the flow experience has significant direct and indirect effects on TikTok addiction behavior. Notably, this study finds that TikTok addiction is determined by users' mental concentration on the medium and its content. Several theoretical insights from the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model and the flow theory are used to explain the findings.

A techno-psychological approach to understanding problematic use of short-form video applications: The role of flow

Short-form video applications (SVAs) have been gaining increasing popularity among users, which has raised the concern of problematic SVA use. Flow—a positive experience in which individuals feel immersion, enjoyment, temporal dissociation, and curiosity—contributes to the development of problematic SVA use. Most of the prior research examined the motivations of flow and the self-traits that trigger flow, but paid limited attention to the technological affordances of smartphone applications that facilitate users' flow. Algorithm recommendation, multimodality, and low-cost interaction are three affordances of SVAs. Thus, drawing upon the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study proposes a mediation model to examine how these affordances influence problematic SVA use through flow. An online survey (N = 621) showed that algorithm recommendation was negatively associated with problematic SVA use but was not significantly correlated to flow. Multimodality was directly and positively associated with problematic SVA use. Meanwhile, the relationship between these two variables were mediated by flow. Low-cost interaction had an indirect link with problematic SVA use via flow, while the direct link between them was not significant. The results suggest that low-cost interaction is the affordance that is most likely to trigger flow and problematic SVA use, followed by multimodality. However, algorithm recommendation seems to be an affordance that is less likely to facilitate flow or cause problematic SVA use. Our proposed model not only enriches the S-O-R framework in the digital environment, but also denotes a techno-psychological approach to examine problematic use of SVAs and other digital applications. Moreover, the findings offer practical implications for optimizing SVAs' technological affordances to properly manage problematic SVA use.

COVID-19 Victimization Experience and College Students’ Mobile Phone Addiction: A Moderated Mediation Effect of Future Anxiety and Mindfulness

This study proposed a moderated mediation model to investigate the association between COVID-19 victimization experience and mobile phone addiction, the mediating role of future anxiety, and the moderating role of mindfulness. This study employed the COVID-19 victimization experience scale, the mobile phone addiction scale, a future anxiety scale, and a mindfulness scale in a survey study among Chinese college students; 840 valid questionnaires were received. The reliability and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that all four scales had good reliability and validity. Bootstrap results demonstrated that COVID-19 victimization experience significantly predicted mobile phone addiction in college students (B = 0.202, LLCI = 0.136, ULCI = 0.268). Future anxiety fully mediated the association between COVID-19 victimization experience and mobile phone addiction (B = 0.178, LLCI = 0.136, ULCI = 0.222). Mindfulness moderated the effect of COVID-19 victimization experience on the college students’ future anxiety (B = 0.159, LLCI = 0.007, ULCI = 0.054). A higher level of mindfulness was more likely than a lower level of mindfulness to attenuate the effect of COVID-19 victimization experience on the college students’ future anxiety. These findings broaden our understanding regarding the association between COVID-19 victimization experience and mobile phone addiction and the moderating role of mindfulness.

The Influence of Innovation Climate on Creative Role Identity: The Mediating Role of Flow

Creative role identity is an important antecedent of innovative behaviors. Both the mechanism of how external factors and individual factors affect the formation of creative role identity and details of this process have yet to be discovered. Based on data collected from 226 students in 6 classes at a university in Guangdong during the development of innovative projects, the influence of innovation climate on the students' creative role identity, especially the mediating effect of flow, was investigated. The results show that the innovation climate has a positive impact on creative role identity and that flow plays a partial mediating role in this relationship.

The Power of Affection: Exploring the Key Drivers of Customer Loyalty in Virtual Reality-Enabled Services

The accelerating growth of virtual reality (VR) technology and evolving customer needs make multifarious challenges and opportunities for service industries. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Theory of Affection Responses, we explored the key drivers of customer loyalty in virtual reality-enabled services through a large-scaled survey data collected from VR users in four major cities of Pakistan. The study employs the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). We verified that the authenticity of the VR experience and TAM dimensions (ease of use, usefulness of VR) are the key drivers of customer loyalty béhavioral in VR-enabled services. Furthermore, results revealed that Affective responses (i.e., enjoyment, emotional involvement, and flow state) significantly mediated the relationships between the drivers and customer loyalty (continued use, recommendation, and willingness to pay premium). Implications for researchers and VR practitioners were also provided.

Cellphone addiction during the Covid-19 outbreak: How online social anxiety and cyber danger belief mediate the influence of personality

The highly contagious Covid-19 virus is spreading around the world, and quarantining at home has become one of the main preventative behaviors, but it has also led to news blackouts, affecting people's normal life and interactions. In order to determine a predictor of cellphone addiction (CPA), the present study, based on the Risk of Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, investigated the relationship between personality (Neuroticism and Extraversion) and CPA during the epidemic, mediated by online social anxiety (OSA) and cyber danger belief (CDB). A total of 683 questionnaires were collected through snowball sampling and analyzed by Mplus. Results indicated that neurotic and extroverted individuals developed CPA through different mediating factors. Neuroticism affected CPA through OSA while Extraversion affected CPA through CDB. These findings highlight the importance of different mechanisms of individuals with different personalities. Corresponding cognitive treatments on the perception of social anxiety and cyber danger are recommended on neurotic and extroverted individuals, respectively, in order to reduce their degree of CPA.

The Effect of Sense of Community on Users' Continuance of Online Music Communities

Due to the intense competition, retaining users and facilitating their continuance are crucial to the success of online music communities. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of sense of community on users' continuance intention of online music communities. Structural equation modeling was adopted to conduct data analysis. The results indicated that social support and flow experience have significant effects on sense of community, which further affects continuance intention. The main limitation is that the results need to be generalized to other countries that had developed online music communities. This research disclosed the mechanism underlying users' continuance in online music communities, which represent an emerging application.

Internet Use and Adolescents' Physical and Mental Health: the Mediating Role of Self-consciousness and Peer Relationships

In recent years, online gaming and cyber pornography have become problematic activities among Internet users. When individuals immerse themselves in these activities, the experience of flow can negatively influence users’ physical and mental health and interpersonal relationships. Thus, this study analyzed the mediating roles of self-consciousness and peer relationships in the relationships between online gaming, cyber pornography, and physical and mental health. We obtained data from fifteen senior high schools in Taiwan (N = 1838 students; first year, 996 students, and second year, 842 students) by conducting a 2-year longitudinal survey. Statistical analyses were performed using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that adolescents’ online gaming was positively associated with their physical and mental health; however, it was negatively associated with their self-consciousness. In addition, when they became absorbed in cyber pornography, they lost track of time and lost self-consciousness, and it influenced their peer relationships. Self-consciousness and peer relationships mediated the relationships between cyber pornography and participants’ physical and mental health. We identified relationships between online gaming, cyber pornography, elements of flow, and physical and mental health. The findings of this research can offer guidelines for policy makers and educators who evaluate adolescents’ Internet use and behavior to provide proper access to Internet use and promote by building a healthy Internet environment in educational activities.

Does the Dark Side of Personality Traits Explain Compulsive Smartphone Use of Higher Education Students? The Interaction Effect of Dark Side of Personality with Desirability and Feasibility of Smartphone Use

Research on compulsive use of smartphones amongst students largely remains unexplored. The study seeks to investigate the feasibility and desirability motives—instant gratification, mood regulations, convenience, flow and personality—to understand the compulsive use of smartphones. The results of the useful data of 200 respondents following purposive sampling design, provided evidence of instant gratification, mood regulation and convenience motives, which significantly explain flow and compulsive smartphone use. Personality of users also appeared as a significant moderator between flow and compulsive smartphone use. The findings of the study reveal that the personality of smartphone users enhances the propensity to build compulsive smartphone use. Additionally, the findings reveal the double-edged sword impact of flow in forming compulsive smartphone use and allowing smartphone brands to design phones that help phone users to develop self-control over their behaviours related to using smartphones.

Navigating from live to virtual social interactions: looking at but not manipulating smartphones provokes a spontaneous mimicry response in the observers

By gathering data on people during their ordinary daily activities, we tested if looking at, but not manipulating, smartphones led to a mimicry response in the observer. Manipulating and looking at the device (experimental condition), more than its mere manipulation (control condition), was critical to elicit a mimicry response in the observer. Sex, age and relationship quality between the experimenter and the observer had no effect on the smartphone mimicry response that tended to decrease during social meals. Due to the role of food as a tool in increasing social affiliation, it is possible that during communal eating, people engage in other forms of mimicry involving facial expressions and postures rather than the use of objects. Understanding the ethological mechanisms of the use of smartphones at everyday-social scale could unveil the processes at the basis of the widespread/increasing use of these devices at a large scale.

The relationships between negative emotions and latent classes of smartphone addiction

The relationships between negative emotions and smartphone addiction has been tested through the literature. However, most of the studies applied variable-centered approaches. The heterogeneity of smartphone addiction severity has not been examined for the associations with negative emotion variables. The purposes of the present study is to explore the latent classes of smartphone addiction and analyze the relationships between depression, social anxiety and boredom and these subgroups. The Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV) and three negative emotion scales were employed to conduct a survey of 539 college students. Mplus8.3 software was applied to perform the latent class analysis (LCA) based on the smartphone addiction symptom ratings. ANOVA and multinomial logistic regression were used to explore the differences among these latent categories and the associations between these subgroups and negative emotion variables. Results demonstrated that Negative emotional variables were significantly correlated with smartphone addiction proneness. Based on their scores on the Smartphone Addiction Scale, smartphone users were divided into three latent classes: low risk class, moderate class and high risk class. Women were more likely to be classified in the high-risk class. The severity of depression and boredom was able to predict the membership of the latent class effectively; while social anxiety failed to do this in the high risk class.

The Moderating Effects of Young Adults' Personality Traits on Social Media Immersion

Young adults are currently among the heaviest users of Internet-based social media applications. The goal of this study was to develop and empirically validate a conceptual model to test associations between students’ attitudes toward social media and their experiences in social media use and immersion. Participants were 9,633 students (average age 16 years; 4,702 males, 4,931 female) who randomly selected from 150 high schools in Taiwan. Participants completed questionnaire surveys describing their attitudes toward social media, immersion experiences, and Big Five personality traits. Structural equation modeling was used to determine factors that predicted and moderated social media immersion. The results of this study highlight the impact that specific personality traits have on the connections between attitudes toward social media and the immersion young adults experience when engaged with social media platforms. These findings suggest that schools and families should establish guidelines to protect young adults from excessive immersion in social media usage, ensure the safety of online environments for this user group, and inform youth regarding the proper use of social media.

Mobile Phone Addiction and Risk-Taking Behavior among Chinese Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model

Objectives: The mobile phone (MP) is an indispensable digital device in adolescents’ daily lives in the contemporary era, but being addicted to MP can lead to more risk-taking behavior. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation. To address the gaps in the literature, the present study examined the idea that MP addiction is associated with reduced self-control, which further associates with increased risk-taking behavior. In addition, this study also investigated the moderation effect of adolescent sex in the association between MP addiction and self-control. Methods: A three-wave longitudinal study, each wave spanning six months apart, was conducted in a sample of Chinese adolescents (final N = 333, 57.4% girls). Results: Results of the moderated mediation model suggest that after controlling for demographic variables and baseline levels of self-control and risk-taking behavior, MP addiction at T1 positively predicted increased risk-taking behavior at T3 through reduced self-control at T2 for girls but not for boys. Conclusions: Theoretically, these findings contribute to the understanding about the working processes in the association between MP addiction and risk-taking behavior in adolescents. Practically, the results implied that boosting self-control appeared as a promising way to reduce girls’ risk-taking behavior, particularly for those who are addicted to MPs.

Challenging the Concept of Smartphone Addiction: An Empirical Pilot Study of Smartphone Usage Patterns and Psychological Well-Being

Smartphone use is ubiquitous, however, scholarly debate regarding the addictive nature of smartphones abounds. In this context, it is integral to distinguish between the content that users experience and the medium that facilitates access to the former, as users may experience addictive-like responses to the specific activities they engage in through the context experienced rather than the device that facilitates access to these activities. The present study aimed to explore conceptualizations of smartphone addiction by (a) investigating user preferences for specific smartphone functionalities, (b) examining behavioral changes associated with limited access to preferred functionalities, and (c) exploring links between aspects of smartphone use and self-reported psychological well-being. A total of 471 participants completed an online survey, providing data on sociodemographics, actual and hypothetical smartphone usage, and psychological well-being (depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms). The results showed that communication functionalities were most frequently cited as being preferred among smartphone users. Notably, participants reported that they would check their smartphones significantly fewer times if their top-three functionalities were inaccessible. This suggests that smartphone users are likely to become addicted to the functionalities they access on their smartphones (content) and not the smartphones themselves (medium), rendering unviable the notion of smartphone addiction as a construct. Further analyses suggested negligible to small correlations between aspects of smartphone use and psychological well-being variables. The findings imply that rather than focusing on frequency of smartphone use, it is recommended that future research examines the type and quality of specific smartphone usages and their effects on user well-being.

Do Smartphones Create a Coordination Problem for Face-to-Face Interaction? Leveraging Game Theory to Understand and Solve the Smartphone Dilemma

Smartphone use changes the landscape of social interactions, including introducing new social dilemmas to daily life. The challenge of putting down one's smartphone is an example of a classic coordination problem from game theory: the stag hunt game. In a stag hunt game, there are two possible coordination points, one that involves big payoffs for both partners (e.g., working together to hunt large game like stag) and one that involves smaller payoffs for both partners (e.g., individually hunting small game like rabbits) but is safer because it does not require that your partner choose that option as well. This is similar to the challenges of putting down smartphones to have a face-to-face interaction: you and your interaction partner might both prefer the higher payoff option of having a face-to-face interaction, but neither of you wants to put down your phone and risk not having anything to do in the meantime. It is also discussed how new technological innovations are changing the payoffs of face-to-face conversation versus side-by-side smartphone scrolling. Insights that come from applying game theory to this "social media dilemma" are discussed here and potential solutions that come out of a game theoretic analysis are offered. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/9esL578zM-E.

Mobile Phone Use and Mental Health. A Review of the Research That Takes a Psychological Perspective on Exposure

The purpose of this study was to carry out a review of observational studies that consider links between mobile phone use and mental health from a psychological or behavioral perspective. Systematic literature searches in PubMed and PsycINFO for articles published until 2017 were done. Exclusion criteria included: papers that considered radiofrequency fields, attention, safety, relational consequences, sexual behavior, cyberbullying, and reviews, qualitative, and case or experimental studies. A total of 4738 papers were screened by title and abstract, 404 were retrieved in full text, and 290 were included. Only 5% had any longitudinal design. Self-reporting was the dominating method of measurement. One third of the studies included children or youth. A majority of adult populations consisted of university students and/or self-selected participants. The main research results included associations between frequent mobile phone use and mental health outcomes, such as depressive symptoms and sleep problems. Mobile phone use at bedtime was associated with, e.g., shorter sleep duration and lower sleep quality. "Problematic use" (dependency) was associated with several negative outcomes. In conclusion, associations between mobile phone use and adverse mental health outcomes are found in studies that take a psychological or behavioral perspective on the exposure. However, more studies of high quality are needed in order to draw valid conclusions about the mechanisms and causal directions of associations.