Smartphone use as a potential moderator between attachment to friends and subjective well-being among high school students

Abstract

The research deals with a problem that has remained open despite significant efforts on the part of researchers - does frequent use of smart phones disrupt the interpersonal relationships and subjective well-being of the users? Hypotheses on the moderating effects that smart phone (SP) use can have on the relationship between dimensions pertaining to attachment to friends and dimensions pertaining to subjective well-being among high school students were tested. The research included 556 Serbian adolescents, all of whom were of age. The following measuring instruments were used: Smartphone use frequency (SUF); Inventory of Parents and Peer Attachment-Revised (IPPA-R) - subscales for friends; in particular, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were used to measure subjective well-being. The basic research results indicate that the frequency of smart phone use is a moderator in the relationship between Trust in friends and Communication with friends, and Satisfaction with life and Positive affect: the connection between Trust and Communication, and the dimensions of subjective well-being is most pronounced for those adolescents who, compared to their peers, use smart phones the least, while the connection is the weakest, or cannot be determined, among those adolescents who most frequently use a smart phone. An important limit in the frequency of SP use is the transition from low or moderate to excessive use - in the case of the highest level of frequency of SP use the positive connection between attachment to friends and subjective well-being is lost.