Abstract
SummaryBackgroundThe percentage of smartphone users—especially among minors—is growing, and so is the body of literature hinting at increasing rates of problematic smartphone use in children and adolescents. However, comprehensive reviews regarding this issue are still scarce.ObjectiveThe main aim of this review was to provide an overview of studies focusing on specific risk factors predicting problematic smartphone use in children and adolescents.MethodsA literature search was conducted in Google Scholar and PubMed.ResultsThe search yielded 38 articles that met the criteria for inclusion in this review. Research regarding influencing factors such as gender, age, and social, family, and personality factors, as well as duration of use and use patterns, could be found. Results seem to cautiously suggest that using a smartphone for gaming and social networking might be risk factors, whereas having good friendships might constitute a protective factor. Also, female adolescents seem to be prone to a higher smartphone addiction risk than male adolescents. For family, school, and personality factors, results are still scarce, and more research is needed. Nevertheless, strict parenting, low self-control, and low self-esteem seem to increase risks for problematic use, whereas academic motivation and school success might decrease this risk.ConclusionA concise theoretical conceptualization of problematic smartphone use and corresponding standardized measures are needed to increase comparability of future studies and to thereby add to a clearer understanding of this contested concept.
Highlights
In recent years, the worldwide percentage of smartphone owners and users has increased steadily [1]
It has been argued that problematic smartphone use can be viewed as a form of behavioral addiction like gaming addiction or Internet addiction [2, 4, 9]
Symptoms commonly associated with behavioral addictions, such as tolerance, withdrawal, mood dysregulation, cravings, and loss of control, have been found to be related to problematic smartphone use [10]
Summary
The worldwide percentage of smartphone owners and users has increased steadily [1]. Among others, communication, Internet, and multimedia [2], smartphones—not least because of their ease of access [3]—have several advantages such as productivity enhancement, facilitated information seeking [3], and heightened pleasure via social interactions [4] Despite these benefits, a growing body of literature hints at negative consequences and possible dangers associated with smartphones [3, 5, 6]. Symptoms commonly associated with behavioral addictions, such as tolerance, withdrawal, mood dysregulation, cravings, and loss of control, have been found to be related to problematic smartphone use [10] Based on these findings, and similar to Internet addiction, Demirci et al [2] have suggested that smartphone addiction is characterized by an overuse of smartphones that interferes with the users’ daily functioning
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