Cell Phone Addiction in Adolescents: A Narrative Review

Abstract

This narrative review on cell phone (smart phone) addiction in adolescents is based on papers published during the years 2014-2020 that appeared on PubMed and PsycINFO. The prevalence of cell phone addiction has varied widely across countries as have the scales for that addiction. Cell phone addiction effects include psychological problems (loneliness, depression, social anxiety), physical problems (sleep disturbance, hypertension) and problematic behaviors (sexting, substance use). Risk factors/predictors include parental cell phone addiction, Internet addiction, gaming, and fear of missing out. Methodological limitations include the lack of a standard cell phone addiction classification and the reliance on self-report questionnaires that often do not include time spent on cell phones and the nature of cell phone use (texting, scrolling, chatting) as well as potential underlying mechanisms such as social anxiety. Further, most of the studies are cross-sectional, not longitudinal, so that the direction of effects cannot be determined. Researchers, nonetheless, have arbitrarily assigned behaviors as outcome or predictor variables when they may be more validly considered comorbid activities.