Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify personality factor-associated predictors of smartphone addiction predisposition (SAP). Participants were 2,573 men and 2,281 women (n = 4,854) aged 20–49 years (Mean ± SD: 33.47 ± 7.52); participants completed the following questionnaires: the Korean Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (K-SAPS) for adults, the Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System questionnaire (BIS/BAS), the Dickman Dysfunctional Impulsivity Instrument (DDII), and the Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS). In addition, participants reported their demographic information and smartphone usage pattern (weekday or weekend average usage hours and main use). We analyzed the data in three steps: (1) identifying predictors with logistic regression, (2) deriving causal relationships between SAP and its predictors using a Bayesian belief network (BN), and (3) computing optimal cut-off points for the identified predictors using the Youden index. Identified predictors of SAP were as follows: gender (female), weekend average usage hours, and scores on BAS-Drive, BAS-Reward Responsiveness, DDII, and BSCS. Female gender and scores on BAS-Drive and BSCS directly increased SAP. BAS-Reward Responsiveness and DDII indirectly increased SAP. We found that SAP was defined with maximal sensitivity as follows: weekend average usage hours > 4.45, BAS-Drive > 10.0, BAS-Reward Responsiveness > 13.8, DDII > 4.5, and BSCS > 37.4. This study raises the possibility that personality factors contribute to SAP. And, we calculated cut-off points for key predictors. These findings may assist clinicians screening for SAP using cut-off points, and further the understanding of SA risk factors.
Highlights
The number of smartphone users is increasing worldwide; about 40 million people (78.6% of the population) in South Korea have smartphones [1]
About 13.4% (N = 652) of participants were in the smartphone addiction predisposition (SAP) group (9.4% of all males; 17.9% of all females)
Previous studies suggested that females are more addicted to smartphones [21] and females are likely to experience more frequent problematic use of mobile phones [45]
Summary
The number of smartphone users is increasing worldwide; about 40 million people (78.6% of the population) in South Korea have smartphones [1]. As smartphones become more popular, concerns about the negative consequences of their overuse are increasing. Adverse consequences of overuse include physical health-related problems, such as musculoskeletal disorders of the hand, wrist and neck [2, 3], ocular symptoms [4] and elevated risk of psychopathologies such as attention deficit [5], aggression and sleep disturbance [6]. Excessive use of smartphones has generated terms such as “problematic mobile phone use”, “mobile phone addiction”, and “smartphone addiction” (SA). There are no established diagnostic criteria for a disorder characterized by excessive patterns of smartphone use, and there is still controversy over whether it is appropriate to apply the word “addiction” to such use. To date, the only support for this phenomenon on being an addiction comes from exploratory studies relying on self-reports or clinical case studies [7]
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