Tell Me a Story: Socio-Emotional Functioning, Well-Being and Problematic Smartphone Use in Adolescents With Specific Learning Disabilities.

Daniela Sarti,Marta Tironi,Roberta Bettoni,Daniela Traficante,Elisabetta Lombardi,Ilaria Offredi,Maria Luisa Lorusso

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02369

Abstract

Although Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) are described as specific difficulties in one or more academic areas, often socio-emotional problems are also reported to be related to well-being and school engagement. Moreover, recent evidence shows that emotional problems and reduced social support predict problematic use of new technologies, such as a smartphone, that can, in turn, increase these problems. In this study, we aimed to investigate socio-emotional functioning and its relation to well-being, school engagement, and problematic smartphone use. Social and emotional skills of 19 adolescents with a diagnosis of SLD and 19 control adolescents were assessed through a narrative test; adolescents were requested to narrate complete stories elicited by pictures representing social situations. Information on well-being and problematic smartphone use were collected through questionnaires. The comparison between groups showed differences in cognitive-social skills, although no significant differences in emotional functioning were found. Additionally, the perception of the social environment as supportive and trustworthy was related to general well-being for both groups, whereas the perception of limits and rules set by the adult world appeared to be related to a decreased investment in learning processes only for the SLD students. Finally, correlation analysis showed that smartphone use was associated with reduced perception of social support and to a decreased ability to understand and solve social situations. These results assert the critical role played by social information processing and social support in terms of well-being in adolescence, and contribute to enhancing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying problematic smartphone use in a clinical sample.

Highlights

In the last 20 years, the use of technology is constantly increasing and has become very common, especially among adolescents (De Pasquale et al, 2017) who are progressively encouraged to use technological devices for learning purposes
Using a performance-based test, we aimed to investigate whether Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) Italian students are less skillful in understanding and solving social situations, manifest more emotional problems, and perceive less social support than the control group
The t-tests revealed a reliable difference between groups in the scales related to external support as Support Other Help (SUPO-H) and Reliance on Other (REL)

Summary

Introduction

In the last 20 years, the use of technology is constantly increasing and has become very common, especially among adolescents (De Pasquale et al, 2017) who are progressively encouraged to use technological devices for learning purposes. Some researchers suggest that these difficulties in social competence may be a result of the social stigma frequently attached to SLD (Chan et al, 2017) and, in general, to other populations affected by neurodevelopmental disorders (i.e., intellectual disabilities; Ali et al, 2012). Due to their poor academic performance, students with SLD are often perceived as being less attractive, less successful, and lazier than their peers and, they may tend to believe and internalize this biased perspective about themselves. SLD students have shown poorer ability to encode social cues, to produce alternative solutions, and to select the most feasible competent one (Bauminger and Kimhi-Kind, 2008; BaumingerZviely et al, 2019)

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