Comparing generalized and specific problematic smartphone/internet use: longitudinal relationships between smartphone application- based addiction and social media addiction and psychological distress

Chen, I.-H., Pakpour, A.H., Leung, H., Potenza, M.N., Su, J.-A., Lin, C.-Y. and Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 2020. Comparing generalized and specific problematic smartphone/internet use: longitudinal relationships between smartphone application- based addiction and social media addiction and psychological distress. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9 (2), pp. 410-419. ISSN 2062-5871

[img]
Preview
Text
1339326_Griffiths.pdf - Published version

Download (918kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background and aims: The literature has proposed two types of problematic smartphone/internet use: generalized problematic use and specific problematic use. However, longitudinal findings on the associations between the two types of problematic use and psychological distress are lacking among East-Asians. The present study examined temporal associations between both generalized and specific problematic use of the smartphone/internet, and psychological distress.

Methods: Hong Kong University students (N 5 308; 100 males; mean age 5 23.75 years; SD ± 5.15) were recruited with follow-ups at three, six, and nine months after baseline assessment. All participants completed the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (for generalized problematic smartphone/internet use), the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (for specific problematic smartphone/internet use), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (for psychological distress) in each assessment. Latent growth modeling (LGM) was constructed to understand temporal associations between generalized/specific problematic use and psychological distress.

Results: The LGM suggested that the intercept of generalized problematic use was significantly associated with the intercept of psychological distress (standardized coefficient [b] 5 0.32; P < 0.01). The growth of generalized problematic use was significantly associated with the growth of psychological distress (b 5 0.51; P < 0.01). Moreover, the intercept of specific problematic use was significantly associated with the intercept of psychological distress (b 5 0.28; P < 0.01) and the growth of psychological distress (b 5 0.37; P < 0.01).

Conclusion: The initial level of problematic use of the smartphone/internet may prevent psychological distress.

Item Type: Journal article
Publication Title: Journal of Behavioral Addictions
Creators: Chen, I.-H., Pakpour, A.H., Leung, H., Potenza, M.N., Su, J.-A., Lin, C.-Y. and Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher: Akadémiai Kiadó
Date: June 2020
Volume: 9
Number: 2
ISSN: 2062-5871
Identifiers:
NumberType
10.1556/2006.2020.00023DOI
1339326Other
Rights: © 2020 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author and source are credited, a link to the CC License is provided, and changes – if any – are indicated.
Divisions: Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by: Linda Sullivan
Date Added: 29 Jun 2020 09:51
Last Modified: 16 Jul 2021 14:15
URI: https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/40125

Actions (login required)

Edit View Edit View

Views

Views per month over past year

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year