Children's use of mobile devices, smartphone addiction and parental mediation in Taiwan

Abstract

This study assessed the prevalence of smartphone addiction among children in Taiwan and examined the related factors. A total of 2621 fifth-grade students and 2468 parents from 30 primary schools in Taipei, Taiwan completed self-administered questionnaires in 2016. The results showed that fifth-grade students spent 11 h per week using either smartphones or tablets. The prevalence of smartphone addiction among fifth-grade students was 15.2%. Multivariate analysis results showed that parents who had high levels of risk perception and mediation efficacy were more likely to implement restrictive mediation of their children's use of the Internet and mobile devices. In addition, multivariate analysis results showed that children who had poor academic performance, depression, owned smartphones, frequently played smartphone/tablet gaming, and regularly used SNSs and instant messaging, had low levels of parental restrictive mediation, and had lower levels of self-reported Internet safety literacy were more likely to experience smartphone addiction.