Patterns of smartphone addiction in adolescents and their association with multiple ecological factors: A latent profile analysis

Abstract

Smartphones are a ubiquitous means of communication and entertainment, and adolescents are at risk of becoming addicted to their use. The purpose of the current study was to identify latent profiles of adolescent smartphone addiction and to test whether these profiles could be predicted by factors in the multiple contexts of family (parent-adolescent attachment, parental monitoring), peers (deviant peer affiliation, peer relationships), and school (teacher-adolescent relationships, school bonding). Participants were 554 students (45.8 % girls, aged 11–17 years) from two middle schools in Changsha, China. The latent profile analysis revealed three smartphone addiction patterns: “low smartphone addiction group” (52.1%), “moderate smartphone addiction group” (35.7%), and “high smartphone addiction group” (12.2%). Members of the three profiles differed in parent-adolescent attachment and deviant peer affiliation. Specifically, compared to the low smartphone addiction group, adolescents who perceived low parent-adolescent attachment were more likely to be in the high smartphone addiction group, while adolescents who perceived higher deviant peer affiliation were more likely to belong to the moderate and high smartphone addiction group. The current study is the first to identify patterns of adolescent smartphone addiction in relation to multiple ecological factors, and the results may inform targeted prevention and intervention strategies.