Abstract
Toddlers come into contact with smartphones by the time they are 10 months old, and smartphones eventually become a part of the daily lives of toddlers because they are used as parenting tools and are also attractive toys. Routine exposure to these electronic devices may lead to excessive immersion, which can cause smartphone dependence when toddlers grow up. Based on Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, we aimed to develop a new scale to measure the flow phenomenon in toddlers who are exposed to smartphones. We attempted to identify the constituent factors of a toddler’s flow in smartphones through a literature review, observations, and interviews. Initially, 32 questions were screened from the field verification stage and interviews; the final 20 questions were selected by combining technical statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and expert feasibility. We also found five eligible constituent factors, namely, a playfulness-oriented experience, reaction limited by concentration, and intentional pursuit to achieve the goal, assimilate into the virtual world, and acquire desire-fulfilling skills. We then performed a confirmatory factor analysis on our parent-reported toddlers’ smartphone flow state scale. To secure the criterion-related validity, the correlation between our scale and the preexisting smartphone dependence measurement tool for toddlers was evaluated. Cronbach’s α value of the toddlers’ smartphone flow state scale was 0.95 (each factor was verified as 0.79–0.92 and the explanatory power was 72.21%). The test–retest reliability was found to be stable with the intraclass correlation (ICC) coefficient value of 0.78 (p < 0.001). Our research findings suggest that this novel smartphone flow state scale for toddlers could be a valid and reliable tool for measuring how toddlers feel the flow phenomenon while using smartphones. Furthermore, our results could contribute to the development and evaluation of the interventions that prevent side effects from smartphone overflow in toddlers.
Highlights
Smartphones are portable electric devices that integrate telephone and computing functions into one unit, which have become increasingly popular and even indispensable.Smartphones have become more commonly used as parenting tools due to parents’ convenience and toddlers’ preferences
We developed a new scale to measure the flow phenomenon in toddlers exposed to smartphones
“indulgence,” “immersion,” “engagement,” “addiction,” and “dependence.” Research works that met the following criteria were eligible: (a) Papers must relate to the search items above; (b) papers must be published from 1975 to 2019; (c) papers must relate to the components of flow, which can be utilized in our flow state scale
Summary
Smartphones are portable electric devices that integrate telephone and computing functions into one unit, which have become increasingly popular and even indispensable. Smartphones have become more commonly used as parenting tools due to parents’ convenience and toddlers’ preferences. A recent study found an incidence of first smartphone use of 45.1% at the age of one (12–24 months) and 20.2% at the age of two (24–36 months); smartphones become a part of daily life by the time toddlers are 36 months old [2]. The daily smartphone usage time of Korean 24-month-old toddlers has been shown to be 57 min in those receiving daycare services and 84 min toddlers not receiving these services. Considering smartphone-based learning such as audiovisual education, overall phone exposure to toddlers is more than two hours per day [3]
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