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Effects of materialism on problematic smartphone dependency among adolescents: The role of gender and gratifications

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Abstract

We study youth materialism as an antecedent of problematic smartphone dependency among adolescents. Based on Uses and Gratifications theory and the I-PACE framework, we consider process- and social-oriented smartphones as mediators in the relationship between youth materialism and problematic smartphone dependency. Using data from 463 French late adolescents (mean 16.8 years; 58 % female), known as digital natives, we demonstrate that paths differ depending on gender. For girls, youth materialism is positively related to problematic smartphone dependency via social-oriented smartphone use, whereas this relationship is nonsignificant for boys. Moreover, youth materialism is positively related to problematic smartphone dependency via process-oriented smartphone use for both boys and girls, but the relationship is stronger for boys than for girls. We discuss the implications of these results for business and social policies.

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... Smartphone addiction is already the subject of a vast amount of scientific literature. Smartphone use can lead to a behavioral addiction that proves problematic when it causes deleterious effects for its user (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Although these negative consequences do not always result in severe physiological effects like other substance addictions (Panova & Carbonell, 2018), smartphone addiction can manifest itself in other symptoms or states (Yu & Sussmann, 2020). ...
... In the current study, problematic smartphone dependency (PSD) is characterized by compulsiveobsessive behavior accompanied by a loss of control in its use, conflicts with others or an inability to fulfill one's obligations (Gentina & Rowe, 2020) . It is not a pathology. ...
... The literature on smartphone addiction and dependency has focused on young people because of the ease of constituting study samples from this population and their intense use of social networks (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Unfortunately, there are few studies on adult populations, especially among workers. ...
Article
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Using a sample of 848 workers in France, this article aims to explain problematic smartphone dependency, a behavior considered to have negative consequences for sufferers in the context of work. It examines whether and how addictive pleasure at work is related to problematic smartphone dependency (PSD). The authors propose a model with the originality of an exploratory measure of what is conceptualized as a mobile personal information system (PIS) development. The results obtained are paradoxical in that addictive pleasure at work is negatively correlated with PSD, although it positively contributes to the development of a PIS, the latter being itself positively correlated to gratifications. However, PIS development is not positively correlated to PSD. It is plausible that, although addictive pleasure at work drives the development of mobile PIS, it also provides an escape from compulsive smartphone usage, thus mitigating PSD. These findings also highlight the protecting role of mindfulness against PSD.
... Two studies examined potential gender differences in the association of motives with PSU (C. Chen et al., 2017;Gentina & Rowe, 2020). C. Chen et al. (2017) identified that "self-identity/conformity"' motives were the strongest predictor of PSU for males, whereas for females, "mood regulation" motives were the strongest predictor. ...
... C. Chen et al. (2017) identified that "self-identity/conformity"' motives were the strongest predictor of PSU for males, whereas for females, "mood regulation" motives were the strongest predictor. Gentina and Rowe (2020) identified indirect effects of youth materialism on PSU via "social" motives among females, and via process motives (conceptualised broadly to overlap with "information seeking", "mood regulation", "pass-time", and "enhancement" motives) among males (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). ...
... C. Chen et al. (2017) identified that "self-identity/conformity"' motives were the strongest predictor of PSU for males, whereas for females, "mood regulation" motives were the strongest predictor. Gentina and Rowe (2020) identified indirect effects of youth materialism on PSU via "social" motives among females, and via process motives (conceptualised broadly to overlap with "information seeking", "mood regulation", "pass-time", and "enhancement" motives) among males (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). ...
Article
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Motives for smartphone use may be key factors underlying problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, no study has reviewed the literature investigating the association of motives with PSU. As such, we conducted a systematic review to: (a) determine which smartphone use motives were associated with PSU; and (b) examine the potential indirect and moderating effects of motives in the relationship of psychosocial factors with PSU. We identified 44 studies suitable for inclusion in our systematic review. There was extensive heterogeneity in smartphone use motives measures across the studies, including 55 different labels applied to individual motives dimensions. Categorisation of these motives based on their definitions and item content identified seven motives that were broadly assessed across the included studies. Motives which reflected smartphone use for mood regulation, enhancement, self-identity/conformity, passing time, socialising, and safety were generally positively associated with PSU. There were indirect effects of depression, anxiety, and transdiagnostic factors linked to both psychopathologies on PSU via motives, particularly those reflecting mood regulation. Stress and anxiety variously interacted with pass-time, social, and a composite of enhancement and mood regulation motives to predict PSU. However, the heterogeneity in the measurement of smartphone use motives made it difficult to determine which motives were most robustly associated with PSU. This highlights the need for a valid and comprehensive smartphone use motives measure.
... Pourtant les meilleurs experts 1 ont bien observé un certain nombre de symptômes ou états (Yu & Sussmann, 2020), positionnés sur un continuum allant de l'usage problématique (Bianchi & Philipps, 2005), à l'addiction sévère, en passant par la dépendance (Kwon et al., 2016 ). Gentina et Rowe (2020) proposent le concept de dépendance problématique, qui caractérise une dépendance ayant des conséquences négatives et sévères, bien au-delà d'un simple attachement. C'est cette conception de l'addiction que nous retiendrons dans cette communication. ...
... Les adultes présentant une orientation matérialiste considèrent que la possession d'objets matériels est importante dans leur vie, comme symbole de réussite et de bonheur (Richins, 2004), et sont plus susceptibles que d'autres de développer une addiction aux achats (Claes et al. 2016). Chez les adolescents, à un âge où l'acquisition de biens et services est signe d'une indépendance financière croissante, l'orientation matérialiste favorise la construction de la personnalité, mais aussi l'addiction au smartphone (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Le matérialisme peut être passager, et correspondre à la satisfaction des besoins spécifiques à une étape de vie, ou bien être ancré profondément dans les valeurs d'un adulte, créant chez lui un potentiel comportement addictif. ...
... Chaque « clic » est analysé pour adapter les contenus aux goûts décryptés des individus, faisant d'eux des sujets de surveillance et de consommation renforcée (Zuboff, 2019), sans hésiter à multiplier les signaux de rappel sous forme de pop up et gratifications. Bien que le lien entre matérialisme et addiction soit certainement complexe, il passe par les usages et les gratifications que nous tirons de ces usages (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). ...
Conference Paper
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La dépendance problématique au smartphone considère la dépendance comme un comportement qui a des conséquences négatives et sévères pour l'individu qui en souffre. Cherchant à expliquer cette dépendance dans la population des actifs en France, population très peu étudiée dans la littérature sur l'addiction au smartphone, cette recherche conçoit cette dépendance comme un comme phénomène comportemental qui s'explique en partie de façon cognitive (Davis, 2001). Elle propose un modèle issu de la théorie des usages et de la gratification d'une part et de la théorie de la cognition duale d'autre part qui postule que la régulation du comportement par la réflexion peut devenir dysfonctionnel. Les résultats testés sur 874 personnes suggèrent que les pratiques de méditation favorisées par le MBSR, des applications spécifiques et des retraites, mais aussi l'usage des textos et du téléphone modérent la dépendance, tandis que le matérialisme et l'usage des réseaux sociaux et du web, ainsi qu'un fort usage le weekend le renforce. Au-delà de cette contribution empirique à la littérature, la perte de contrôle du comportement apparaît bien comme le fruit d'une obsession des pensées conduisant à des impulsions mentales dictant le manque et entrainant cette perte de contrôle dont l'impact à des conséquences sérieuses sur l'individu.
... The materialistic lifestyle seems to be an integral part of modern life for teenage consumers (Twenge & Kasser, 2013). Unfortunately, greater materialism among teenagers is also associated with addiction to new technology (Gentina & Rowe, 2020), compulsive buying (Islam et al., 2017), emotion dysregulation (Estévez et al., 2020), and depression (Mueller et al., 2011). In adolescence, building one's own identity is the most important developmental task (Erikson, 1968) and, for young consumers, material goods serve as a source of power by helping them to build their position within their peer group (Banerjee & Dittmar, 2008), as self-image communicators, as a way to compensate for the deficiencies of self-image (Chaplin & John, 2007;Chaplin et al., 2014;Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1981), and for the protection of one's image (Munichor & Steinhart, 2016). ...
... Although most studies treat adolescents as a homogeneous group, research on age differences in the materialistic behavior of adolescents indicates there is an age effect during this period in their lives (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Research has shown differences regarding the use of and attitudes towards material goods as they may be related to self-esteem, which change during adolescence (Chaplin & John, 2007, 2010Zawadzka & Lewandowska-Walter, 2016). ...
... While materialism has been intensively debated since the 1990s (Sabah, 2017), its role in the lives of adolescents has seldom been studied (e.g. Chaplin & John, 2007, 2010Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Zawadzka & Iwanowska, 2016;Zawadzka et al., 2018). ...
Article
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Introduction Contemporary adolescents, also known as Generation Z, are an important group of consumers due to the role they play in today’s economy. The present study investigates the relationship between materialism and brand engagement in self-concept (BESC) and whether conspicuous consumption is a mediator of this relationship in early, middle, and late adolescence. Material and methods The participants were 581 students from Poland, aged 13 to 17 (M = 15 years, SD = 1.42); 51.6% of them were girls. Data were gathered using a demographic information form, the Youth Materialism Scale, the Conspicuous Consumption Scale, and a BESC Scale, completed during personal interviews. Results The study indicated an association of higher materialism and higher conspicuous consumption with a higher level of BESC, where conspicuous consumption acts as a mediator of the correlation between materialism and BESC. Age also moderates this mediation, i.e., the older the teenagers are, the weaker is the analyzed mediation effect. Conclusions The research is part of an essential step in understanding the mechanism of BESC by testing a moderated mediation model in teenagers.
... Regarding gender, various studies have confirmed the relationship between gender and PSU. In some studies, women were found to have a higher risk of PSU than men (Demirci, Akgönül, & Akpinar, 2015;Gutiérrez, de Fonseca, & Rubio, 2016), but in other studies, on the contrary, men were found to have a higher risk of PSU than women (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Another study found no relationship between the two (Chen et al., 2017). ...
... In this regard, several scholars have confirmed that women mainly use smartphones for social relationships, while men mainly use smartphones for fun, games, and gambling. In other words, the purpose of using a smartphone may differ depending on gender, and this difference may cause a difference in PSU (Frangos, Fragkos, & Kiohos, 2010;Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Van Deursen, Bolle, Hegner, & Kommers, 2015). The parental factors play an important role. ...
Article
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Background and aims The current research aimed to discover classification concerning problematic smartphone use in children. Furthermore, to investigate their longitudinal trajectories, as well as to discover the connection concerning problematic smartphone usage by individual, parental, and school factors. Methods A total of 2,399 South Korean children who were in the 4th grade (female 1,206 (50.3%), age 10–13 years) at baseline. Latent class growth analysis was utilized to discover typologies in problematic smartphone use and their longitudinal trajectories. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to find various associations among problematic smartphone use and individual, parental, as well as school factors. Results The results identified three distinct trajectories of problematic smartphone use: (1) a high-level group (7.7%), (2) a mid-increasing group (62.5%), and (3) a low-increasing group (29.8%). The increasing group showed the highest level of problematic smartphone use. Gender, self-esteem, social withdrawal, exercise, parental inconsistency, monthly income, and teacher support were significant predictors. Discussion and Conclusions The findings suggest that there are distinct developmental trajectories concerning problematic smartphone usage of childhood. The results show that the early discovery of children in danger of problematic smartphone use and targeted interventions aimed at reducing parental inconsistency and social withdrawal, improving self-esteem, exercise, and teacher support may be effective strategies for preventing problematic smartphone usage during childhood.
... Men appear to demonstrate more problematic use of video games and online pornography than women (Dufour et al., 2017;Kim, Kim, Choi, Kim, & Kim, 2020;Tang, Koh, & Gan, 2017 for example). Conversely, in the case of problematic uses of smartphones, Gentina and Rowe (2020) showed in a population of adolescents that women using social networks were more likely than men to be addicted to smartphone use (see also Kuss & Griffiths, 2017). Overall, being a man may be associated with higher scores in PIU in almost all activities with an exception for social media, which should be significantly higher among women. ...
... The effect of sex was very small, limited to general PIU scores, and disappeared when controlling for other variables, suggesting that prior results in the literature (e.g. Anderson et al., 2017;Demirer & Bozoglan, 2016;Kuss et al., 2014;Müller et al., 2016) were either driven by confounding variables, or limited to certain samples such as adolescents (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Age had substantial relations with PIU when considered alone in bivariate correlations, with younger people exhibiting more PIU, in line with the results of Yu and Sussman (2020); however, the effects of age became inconsistent when controlling for other variables, suggesting that this was largely due to other confounding variables such as differences in use patterns. ...
... To understand digital natives, the psychological and social concepts of self-esteem, self-image, peer influence, self-disclosure, materialistic values, and stress are highly relevant (Ameen & Anand, 2020;Ameen, Cheah, et al., 2022). In addition, certain personality variables, including extraversion/introversion, conscientiousness, tolerance of uncertainty, neuroticism, narcissism, anxiety, and social enjoyment, are strongly connected with this cohort of consumers (Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Mason et al., 2022). Furthermore, the social variables of loneliness and social support (Gentina & Chen, 2019) can explain how digital natives interact with technology. ...
... Furthermore, youth materialism (the value young people place on acquiring and possessing material objects) is a primary antecedent of problematic dependency on technology. Previous studies have shown that materialism causes addictive behaviors, such as addictive buying (Mason et al., 2022) and problematic use of technology (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). More specifically, in this young generation higher levels of materialism and narcissism can lead to addiction to technology. ...
Article
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Generation Z (Gen Z), also known as digital natives, constitutes one‐third of the world' population. Despite notable contributions and progress explaining Gen Z's behavior, significant gaps remain in our understanding of digital natives, their interactions with new‐age technologies and how these technologies can be utilized to provide a better quality of life for this group of consumers. In this review article, we provide a background on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new‐age technologies, followed by an overview of the articles published in our special section. Finally, we suggest new areas for future research on Gen Z's consumer psychology and interactions with new‐age technologies. Specifically, we propose four main themes for future research in this area: (1) Gen Z and new‐age technologies, specifically generative artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, the metaverse, virtual influencers, and live streaming; (2) Gen Z consumers and global issues, specifically economic and social issues, sustainability and environmental issues, and health and wellbeing; (3) combining theories, concepts and disciplines to understand Gen Z and new‐age technologies; and (4) new methods and forms of collaboration.
... Rather than exploring the potential antecedents of excessive use of short-video apps, this study also interested in examining the interaction between users and cognitive execution to better understand the formation process of demand satisfaction and excessive use behavior. We extend the established I-PACE model (Gentina & Rowe, 2020) to explain the antecedents and mechanisms of the excessive use of digital technologies with inhibitory control to examine how use scenarios contribute to problematic short video use. ...
... Meanwhile, a strong dependent use habit will strengthen the impact of excessive use on short-video apps both in China and United States. The findings are congruent with the addiction literature (Chen, 2019;Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Ryan et al., 2014). ...
... Materialistic people tend to use possessions to symbolize their status and establish their social image (Polak & McCullough, 2006). A large number of early studies have linked materialism with problematic technology use (e.g., problematic smartphone use), and the associations are all positive (Elodie & Frantz, 2020;Long et al., 2021). However, recent researchers have clearly claimed that smartphone users may be addicted to the functions (content) they access on the electronic devices (e.g., smartphone) rather than the electronic devices themselves (media) (Lowe-Calverley & Pontes, 2020). ...
... In addition, based on 646 college students by Zhang et al. (2021) found that, materialism is an important risk factor for SNS addiction. Considering that adolescents' self-control ability is still in the development stage (Pokhrel et al., 2013), and they are more eager to obtain self or others' identity in this period (Elodie & Frantz, 2020). Consequently, we expect to suppose that materialism is positively associated with PSNSU among adolescents (H1). ...
Article
Prior studies have ascertained some risk factors of problematic social network sites use (PSNSU). Nevertheless, few research has examined the potential impact of materialism on PSNSU, as well as underlying mechanisms between this relationship. The present study investigated whether materialism would be linked with adolescents’ PSNSU and whether self-esteem and self-control would mediate them. A sample of 1238 Chinese adolescents (53.6% females) completed measurements regarding demographics, materialism, PSNSU, self-esteem, and self-control. After controlling for gender and age, the results indicated that: (a) materialism was positively correlated with PSNSU; (b) materialism can indirectly affect PSNSU through the mediating effects of self-control; and (c) materialism can indirectly affect PSNSU through the sequential mediating role of self-esteem and self-control. These findings not only provide a new perspective for the cultivation of adolescents’ values, but also contribute an important driving force for the prevention and intervention of adolescents’ PSNSU in the information technology era.
... Moreover, there is empirical evidence that younger consumers have higher materialistic values than older generations (e.g. Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Goldberg et al., 2003). Previous research (e.g., Akbar et al., 2016) found that the possessiveness sub-dimension of materialism is the dominant inhibiting factor to sharing, which might explain low engagement in collaborative consumption in this segment. ...
... risk, complexity, value, contamination, image, compatibility, responsibility;Hazée et al., 2020). Doubtful Laggards are characterized by younger consumers, who were identified as possessing high materialistic values (e.g.Gentina & Rowe, 2020) that hinder sharing (e.g.Akbar et al., 2016). This raises the question of thenature of collaborative consumption among younger generations and opens avenues for further research to answer questions such as: Is it a selfish or altruistic act? ...
Article
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The aim of this study is to show how consumers' pursuit of social identity drives collaborative consumption. A survey conducted among active participants in various forms of collaborative consumption found four types of users with clearly distinguishable characteristics: Social Followers, Distrustful Prosumers, Doubtful Laggards and Traditional Spenders. We use social identity theory to explain why those users who engage in collaborative consumption because of sociability and seeking excitement are also highly environmentally conscious (Social Followers), while very frugal users show the least trust towards what collaborative consumption has to offer (Distrustful Prosumers). We observe favourable social identity for collaborative consumption in the Social Followers segment and unfavourable social identity in the Doubtful Laggards segment. Our findings suggest that social identity plays an important role in forming consumers’ intentions to participate in collaborative consumption. At the general level of collaborative consumption, our study confirms previous findings that social values outweigh environmental and economic values. However, this study contributes to the discussion and closes the research gap by explaining that each component may predominate depending on the type of collaborative consumption user.
... In referencing the social role theory, Lim and Kumar (2019) found that females' Internet use and behaviour are primarily influences by relationship maintenance and social connections, whereas males use the internet mainly for task-oriented activities such as information gathering. In line with this reflection, Gentina and Rowe (2020) argued that females are more socially oriented, when they use their smartphones, compared to males, who are not responsive to social relationship motives. ...
... The moderating effect of gender has gained research attention as a factor that influences technology adoption in different contexts such as e-mails (Gefen and Straub, 1997), online shopping (Zhang et al., 2014), food delivery applications (Okumus et al., 2018), mobile commerce (Faqih and Jaradat, 2015a), mobile banking (Glavee-Geo et al., 2017), computer usage (Sobieraj and Krämer, 2020), mobile tourism applications (Tan and Ooi, 2018), web-based services (Arif et al., 2018), multimedia for e-learning (Park et al., 2019a), smartphones (Baishya and Samalia, 2020;Gentina and Rowe, 2020), mobile health services (Alam et al., 2020), e-learning (Alghamdi et al., 2020), and mobile payments (Shao et al., 2019). Nevertheless, compared to other factors such as usage experience, cultural differences and age, the role of gender, as a moderating variable, has received less consideration in past technology adoption studies (Alam et al., 2020); thus, supporting previous argument (Gefen and Straub, 1997) that the role of gender has generally been avoided in behavioural research in the technology field. ...
Article
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Studies on mobile grocery delivery applications (MGDAs) are scarce and still in the nascent stage. The current study is the first empirical study that investigates customers' behavioural intension to adopt MGDAs. This study extended the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) with important factors relevant to the MGDAs context, such as perceived risk, convenience, and delivery experience. Data was collected from 393 individuals in the State of Kuwait and were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The main empirical results confirmed that users' behavioural intension to adopt MGDAs is predicted by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, hedonic motivations, and delivery experience. The moderating role of gender was also examined. The permutation-based test results confirmed there are no statistically significant differences between males and females in their behavioural intensions to adopt MGDAs. Based on the study results, theoretical and practical contributions are provided for scholars, service providers, stores owners, and apps' developers.
... However, several studies have different results. Gentina and Rowe (2020) found that boys are more attracted by process-oriented usage types such as playing online games or watching short videos at the elementary school level, resulting in boys being more addicted. Thus, differences, arising from the sex of the subjects, in PSU still need to be examined in a wider sample. ...
... However, we focused on elementary students rather than on adults, which may be the main reason our findings were different from those of other studies. At the elementary school level, boys seem passionate about playing games and watching videos online, among other things, but girls seem to care more about their relationships with their peers (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Our findings expand on the literature by depicting the gender differences in PSU. ...
Article
This study examined the mediating roles of mathematics anxiety and learning interest between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement. After two-stage stratified sampling, 30,601 Chinese fourth-graders participated by completing a paper-based test on mathematics achievement and an online questionnaire that included questions on demographic information as well as the problematic smartphone use, mathematics anxiety, and mathematics learning interest scales. The results showed that (1) smartphone use was more problematic among boys than among girls, and students with a low SES tended to be more problematic smartphone users, (2) problematic smartphone use was negatively correlated with mathematics achievement, (3) mathematics anxiety and learning interest partially mediated the relationship between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement, and (4) the relationship between problematic smartphone use and mathematics achievement was serially mediated by mathematics anxiety and then mathematics learning interest. The implications of this study and suggestions for future research are discussed.
... In general, the impact of the digitization of everyday life is a recurring theme in academia, and this is especially evident in sciences such as sociology or the sciences of education. In this sense, digitalization is no longer a strictly technological problem, but is becoming more and more social (Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Reyes-Menendez et al., 2020). Regardless of the way in which education will evolve in terms of its development, it remains certain that a socialization in the spirit of digital technologies becomes imperative for both students and professors. ...
... On the other hand, the interviews confirm that the digitalization of education during the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted pre-existing social problems, which were accentuated by this induced-lockdowns. Among them, differences in access to material and financial resources have led many students to miss classes during the pandemic, findings which confirm the numerous social problems triggered by the emergence of online education (Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Iivari et al., 2020). ...
Chapter
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its induced lockdowns, significantly changed the way the educational act was performed. Using both technological references in phenomenology and features on the relationship between performer and audience, encountered in social dramaturgy, this chapter follows the valences brought by the change in education in the online environment. Based on an exploratory approach made through discourse analysis with seven Romanian professors and 20 Romanian students, two major discursive repertoires can be identified: on the one hand, the one regarding the return to face-to-face courses and, on the other hand, the discourse on maintaining online courses. The discourse regarding the return to classical education is supported by all the interviewed teachers but also by the students who had connectivity problems during the pandemic. The favorable discourse for online classes was supported by most students, especially for temporal and financial reasons. This exploratory pattern confirms that even such choices have a socioeconomic character, not necessarily an individual one.
... Building on social cognitive theories, Kalinić et al. (2019a) asserted that the decision-making process differs among gender, as men are more outcome-oriented and focus on usefulness whereas women are more process-oriented and focus on security and privacy. In referencing the social role theory, Gentina and Rowe (2020) argued that females are more socially oriented when they use their smartphones, compared to males, who are not responsive to social relationship motives. In line with this reflection, Lim and Kumar (2019) found that females' Internet use and behavior are primarily influenced by relationship maintenance and social connections, whereas males use the Internet mainly for task-oriented activities, such as information gathering. ...
... mobile banking(Glavee-Geo et al., 2017), computer usage(Sobieraj & Krämer, 2020), mobile tourism applications(Tan & Ooi, 2018), web-based services(Arif et al., 2018), multimedia for e-learning(Park et al., 2019), smartphones(Baishya & Samalia, 2020;Gentina & Rowe, 2020), mobile health services(Alam et al., 2020), e-learning(Alghamdi et al., 2020;Zogheib et al., 2015b), and m-payments (e.g.Esfahani & Ozturk, 2019; Kalinić et al., 2019;Liu et al., 2019;Ramos de Luna et al., 2019) ...
Article
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Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the variables which affect the intention to use Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled smart wearables (e.g., smartwatches, rings, wristbands) payments. Background: Despite the enormous potential of wearable payments, studies investigating the adoption of this technology are scarce. Methodology: This study extends the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with four additional variables (Perceived Security, Trust, Perceived Cost, and Attractiveness of Alternatives) to investigate behavioral intentions to adopt wearable payments. The moderating role of gender was also examined. Data collected from 311 Kuwaiti respondents were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA). Contribution: The research model provided in this study may be useful for academics and scholars conducting further research into m-payments adoption, specifically in the case of wearable payments where studies are scarce and still in the nascent stage; hence, addressing the gap in existing literature. Further, this study is the first to have specifically investigated wearable payments in the State of Kuwait; therefore, enriching Kuwaiti context literature. Findings: This study empirically demonstrated that behavioral intention to adopt wearable payments is mainly predicted by attractiveness of alternatives, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived security and trust, while the role of perceived cost was found to be insignificant. Recommendations for Practitioners: This study draws attention to the importance of cognitive factors, such as perceived usefulness and ease of use, in inducing users’ behavioral intention to adopt wearable payments. As such, in the case of perceived usefulness, smart wearable devices manufacturers and banks enhance the functionalities and features of these devices, expand on the financial services provided through them, and maintain the availability, performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of these tools. In relation to ease of use, smart wearable devices should be designed with an easy to use, high quality and customizable user interface. The findings of this study demonstrated the influence of trust and perceived security in motivating users to adopt wearable payments, Hence, banks are advised to focus on a relationship based on trust, especially during the early stages of acceptance and adoption of wearable payments. Recommendation for Researchers: The current study validated the role of attractiveness of alternatives, which was never examined in the context of wearable payments. This, in turn, provides a new dimension about a determinant factor considered by customers in predicting their behavioral intention to adopt wearable payments. Impact on Society: This study could be used in other countries to compare and verify the results. Additionally, the research model of this study could also be used to investigate other m-payments methods, such as m-wallets and P2P payments. Future Research: Future studies should investigate the proposed model in a cross-country and cross-cultural perspective with additional economic, environmental, and technological factors. Also, future research may conduct a longitudinal study to explain how temporal changes and usage experience affect users’ behavioral intentions to adopt wearable payments. Finally, while this study included both influencing factors and inhibiting factors, other factors such as social influence, perceived compatibility, personal innovativeness, mobility, and customization could be considered in future research.
... Psychological/social concepts such as narcissism, self-esteem, self-image, peer influence, self-disclosure, materialistic values, stress are highly relevant to understand digital natives. In addition, personality variables including extraversion/introversion, conscientiousness, tolerance of uncertainty, neuroticism, narcissism, anxiety, social enjoyment (Gentina & Rowe, 2020), and social variables such as loneliness and social support (Gentina & Chen, 2019) or theory of mind (Gentina, Yang, & Chen, 2020) can explain how digital natives interact with technology. ...
... Further, youth materialism, the value individuals place on the acquisition and possession of material objects, is a primary antecedent of problematic technology dependency. Previous studies show that materialism causes addictive behaviours, such as addictive buying (Claes Müller & Luyckx, 2016) and problematic technology use (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). More specifically, higher levels of materialism and narcissism lead to technology addiction among this young generation. ...
... In addition, to determine the level of online game addiction in students using a Likert scale that provides four answers, namely strongly agree (SS), agree (S), disagree (TS), and strongly disagree (STS). This scale is based on aspects of online game addiction according to Young (2017), namely salience, overuse, job abandonment, anticipation, lack of control and neglect of social life (Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Giordano, 2021). ...
Article
Excessive use of online games can result in negative impacts, such as an increased risk of addiction. Therefore, the purpose of psychoeducational activities is to provide understanding to junior high school students about the importance of improving self-control in using online games. Psychoeducational activities began with observation, interviews, pre-tests, and post-tests, as well as the delivery of material on self-control and online game addiction. In its implementation, it was found that as many as 20 students fell into the category of severe online game addiction, while 14 students fell into the low category. The results of psychoeducational activities showed an increase in students' understanding of self-control and online game addiction after receiving counseling. Psychoeducation helps students understand the risks of online game addiction and the importance of improving self-control in their use. Through this understanding, it is hoped that students can be wiser in managing the time and frequency of playing online games, and prevent addiction. Thus, psychoeducational activities have an important role in helping students develop awareness of the negative impact of excessive use of online games as well as increase their self-control in this regard.
... PSU has, in recent years, become the focus of discussion among experts on the prevention of risk behaviours mediated by digital media (Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Lopez-Fernandez et al., 2018). Research on problematic smartphone use in vulnerable groups has become essential (Busch & McCarthy, 2021;Pereira et al., 2020) due to several important societal processes that can be observed in recent times. ...
Article
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The aim of the article is to reveal the level of problematic smartphone use (PSU) among young people, with an additional aim being to diagnose the level of use of applications offering ready access to popular social networks (SNS—e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest). The text fills a gap related to the scale and mechanisms of PSUs. The research was conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2022, and is the first study of its kind in the country. A total of 1,024 young people participated in the study (age range 14–19 years; Female 627, Male 397). From the data collected, it was noted that: 1) Loss of control of the duration of smartphone use is the most common symptom of PSU; 2) Around 40% of respondents report having problems with self-control of duration of smartphone use; 3) 17.19% of the sample have high intensity of almost all diagnostic criteria of PSU; 4) About 1/3 of respondents declare no symptoms of PSU; 5) High intensity of PSU is more common in girls than in boys; 6) Instagram and TikTok are the most frequently used applications on smartphones; 7) More than half of the respondents use Instagram software constantly or almost constantly during the day, while less than 40% use TikTok-enabled software; 8) Girls are slightly more likely to use Instagram-enabled and TikTok-enabled software on smartphones; 9) Frequency of use of SNS software on smartphones is a poor predictor of PSU rates.
... The I-PACE model, proposed by Brand et al. [30], is a process model applicable to various addictive behaviors [31]. It has been widely used in smartphone addiction research in recent years [32][33][34]. This model states that specific Internet use disorders are the result of the interaction of core individual characteristics (including psychopathology, personality, social cognition, etc.), affectivecognitive responses, gratification, executive and control functions [30]. ...
Article
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Smartphone addiction is a global problem affecting university students. Previous studies have explored smartphone addiction and related factors using latent variables. In contrast, this study examines the role of smartphone addiction and related factors among university students using a cross-sectional and cross-lagged panel network analysis model at the level of manifest variables. A questionnaire method was used to investigate smartphone addiction and related factors twice with nearly six-month intervals among 1564 first-year university students (M = 19.14, SD = 0.66). The study found that procrastination behavior, academic burnout, self-control, fear of missing out, social anxiety, and self-esteem directly influenced smartphone addiction. Additionally, smartphone addiction predicted the level of self-control, academic burnout, social anxiety, and perceived social support among university students. Self-control exhibited the strongest predictive relationship with smartphone addiction. Overall, self-control, self-esteem, perceived social support, and academic burnout were identified as key factors influencing smartphone addiction among university students. Developing prevention and intervention programs that target these core influencing factors would be more cost-effective.
... [36], the following criteria were used to assess fit indicators: comparative fit index (CFI) > 0.90, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) > 0.90, and root-meansquare error of approximation (RMSEA) < 0.08. (5) The multigroup analysis was conducted to test the moderating effect of Z using Amos 24.0 [37]. This study hypothesized that the interrelationships among variables X, Y, and M will differ between groups with different SPs (variables Z) (Figure 1). ...
... The previous studies have used the UGT in several contexts. For example, over-the-top platforms (Sahu et al., 2021), mobile applications (S anchez et al., 2021), business innovation activity (Mej ıa-Trejo, 2021), diffusion of innovation (Atti e & Meyer-Waarden, 2022), social media and voting behavior (Abid & Harrigan, 2020), social media (Kamboj, 2019), consumer engagement (Aichner, 2019), food delivery apps (Ray et al., 2019), virtual goods and purchasing behavior (Kaur et al., 2020), online green behavior (Mi et al., 2021), politicians on Instagram (Parmelee & Roman, 2019), smartphone dependency (Gentina & Rowe, 2020), mobile social media use among Gen Y , Instagram (Kim & Kim, 2019), microblogs (Liu et al., 2020) and firms' fan page behavior (Shahbaznezhad & Rashidirad, 2021). Therefore, the present has attempted to fulfill the research gap. ...
Article
The rise of the Internet has enabled the consumers to share their brand related emotion in social media brand communities. Members of brand communities frequently use the com-pany's intellectual and cultural assets, which further foster the forming of close bonds. It improves community members' social ties and reciprocity standards. As a result, the brand community members become more cooperative. The stimulus organism response paradigm has been followed as theoretical framework to determine consumers' social participation as stimuli which affect their social capital-bridging and bonding (organism) that ultimately improves their brand commitment (response). Select Facebook brand communities provided the data for this investigation. Also, structural equation modeling, which uses different fit indices to test the theoretical framework, has been done. Innovative aspect of this study is how online social interactions between consumer brand communities influence consumers' social capital, which in turn influences consumers' brand attitude. Additionally, by creating brand communities for their brands, brand managers can capitalize on the satisfactions of the members. Based on the uses and gratification theory, the study that highlights members' desire to participate in brand communities' events can be used by brand managers to advance their businesses.
... Past a certain age, older people may feel more at risk, while adolescents and young adults may consider themselves less vulnerable. Conversely youngsters are more likely to have a smartphone and use it often, or even exhibit problematic dependency behavior (Gentina and Rowe, 2020), while retired people are far less likely to be intensive users. ...
Article
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Contact tracing applications (CTAs) have been presented as important tools in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. In France, the government developed the ‘StopCovid' CTA which later became ‘TousAntiCovid.' This research aims at understanding the determinants of the use of this CTA and of the intention to integrate the health pass. To do that, this study focuses on the perceived value of its use based on the privacy calculus theory. A quantitative study was conducted using a sample of 779 French people. The results show that the use of the CTA and the intention to integrate the health pass are influenced, as hypothesized, by perceived value, distrust towards the government, and personal innovativeness. Perceived value is positively influenced by social and individual benefits, as well as social influence, and, to a lesser extent, negatively influenced by social risks but not by individual risks.
... The existing literature has followed UGT in countless contexts. For example, microblogs (Liu et al., 2020), Facebook (Rasheed Gaber et al., 2019, social media and voting behaviour (Abid and Harrigan, 2020), entertainment value of social media (Naqvi et al., 2020), brand engagement (Florenthal, 2019), political participation (Chen and Chan, 2017), social media technology (Kamboj, 2019), virtual tourism (Kim et al., 2020), the airline industry (Shahbaznezhad and Rashidirad, 2020), virtual goods (Kaur et al., 2020), smartphone Impact of social media participation dependency (Gentina and Rowe, 2020) and Instagram (Kim and Kim, 2019). However, the literature so far has neglected to understand the benefits for female entrepreneurs through their engagement in social media participation. ...
Article
Purpose The use of social media is becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurial marketing as a way to gain psychological empowerment through female entrepreneurship. The participation of female entrepreneurs on social media has witnessed an increasing trend. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of social media participation on female entrepreneurs towards digital entrepreneurship intention and their psychological empowerment. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional study integrates the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework with uses and gratification theory to understand and determine a theoretical framework in understanding the importance of social media for female entrepreneurship in the contemporary digital era. To ensure internal consistency of the latent constructs, this study determines Cronbach’s alpha for all the variables. Further, exploratory factor analysis is performed to ensure the unidimensionality of the latent constructs. Structural equation modelling is performed to test the theoretical framework. Findings Data analysis confirms the significant effect of social media participations on female entrepreneurs towards their digital entrepreneurship intention which further affects their psychological empowerment. Originality/value The practical contributions of this study highlight the importance of female entrepreneurship which is essential for attaining self-reliance by reducing the socio-economic barriers. Further, female entrepreneurs’ participation in social media communities enhances the levels of empowerment.
... Findings indicate that there is a relationship between the need to connect with a large community and user's sex. This confirms previous studies carried out recently [21,22]. The user's education type and education level doesn't play a significant role for the user's need to socialize with other. ...
Conference Paper
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The use of smart devices has increased greatly in the last ten years with users reaching out to the possibility to do more with them, especially in the networking front. In this context, there is a need to understand the connection between users' social demographic factors, their way to related to their smart devices, and the increasing adoption of smart technologies in the industry 4.0 domains. This study was designed to evaluate the sense of belonging of a community using smart devices. In this way, we evaluate intangible benefits that employees may gain from a more immersive relationship with their devices. We used a dataset of 586 anonymous respondents of an existing survey designed for capturing the relationships that humans develop with their smart devices. In particular, we investigate the relationships with a smart device and particular background variables of the respondents using a chi-square test. The study showed that there is a significant relationship between users' sex and smart device type and their dependency on smart devices. Both male and females tend to think that smart device enables them to connect with a larger community and smartphone users connect more to the large community than other smart device users. This study provided several significant findings that strengthen the previous literature works on the subject matter. Certain socio-demographic variables like age, sex and smart device type showed a correlation between smart device users and their tendency to stay in touch with a larger community via their smart device.
... En esta misma línea, otras investigaciones logran demostrar que las funciones ejecutivas en elementos auxiliares como la atención y la metacognición se ven afectadas, no solo por la multitarea que deviene del uso del smartphone, sino también por la ansiedad tecnológica o miedo a perderse, afectando finalmente el rendimiento académico, el estado emocional y el aprendizaje de los estudiantes, lo que puede llevar a trastornos de ansiedad y depresión (López-Fernández, Honrubia-Serrano y Freixa-Blanxart, 2012; Sung, Chang & Liu, 2016;Mendoza et al., 2018;Ralph, Thomson, Cheyne & Smilek, 2014;Rosen et al., 2018;Durak, 2019;Elhai, Yang & Montag, 2019;Rozgonjuk & Elhai, 2019;Stanković et al., 2021). Así mismo, el consumo excesivomanifestado no solo en el gasto económico, sino también en la cantidad de llamadas o mensajes que se pueden llegar a enviar, en las horas de navegación en redes sociales y en línea-conlleva a interrupciones en otras actividades de la vida diaria, alterando relaciones interpersonales o llegando a afectar la salud o bienestar del usuario, debido al contacto continuo con el dispositivo, incluidas las horas de descanso, conducta que se cataloga como abuso (Epalza et al., 2014;Jaramillo et al., 2017;Elhai, Levine & Hall, 2019;Gong, Zhang, Cheung, Chen & Lee, 2019;Mahapatra, 2019;Elhai, Yang, Fang, Bai & Hall, 2020;Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Kuem, Ray, Hsu & Khansa, 2020). Es por eso que han surgido casos de personas que tienen problemas con el celular porque no pueden controlar el uso que hacen del mismo (Villanueva, 2012). ...
Article
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El presente artículo de investigación científica y tecnológica tuvo como objetivo establecer una asociación entre la atención sostenida, la memoria a corto plazo y el uso del smartphone en estudiantes de 15 a 19 años. El método utilizado fue no experimental con diseño descriptivo, comparativo-correlacional, con una muestra no probabilística de n=100 participantes, distribuidos por grupos comparativos de acuerdo con la edad, el sexo, el grado académico y el uso del smartphone. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron las subescalas (atención y memoria) de la batería Neuropsi y una encuesta de elaboración propia para evaluar la frecuencia del uso del smartphone. Se encontró una asociación no causal significativa de forma inversa entre el uso de este tipo de dispositivos y la atención sostenida; una relación directa entre la atención sostenida y la memoria a corto plazo; así como diferencias entre los grupos. Se concluye que, a mayor uso del smartphone, mayor afectación en la atención sostenida; por otro lado, a mayor atención sostenida, mayor memoria a corto plazo, por tanto, el uso del smartphone indirectamente afecta la memoria a corto plazo. Finalmente, las variables cognitivas evaluadas se modifican de acuerdo con factores sociodemográficos como el sexo, el grado y la edad. Palabras clave: smartphone, atención sostenida, estudiantes colombianos, memoria a corto plazo, adolescentes.
... Digital dependency is a growing concern (Rosen et al. (Dhir et al., 2018(Dhir et al., , 2019. The results of research on post-teens suggest that FoMO can be associated with problematic smartphone use (Gentina & Rowe, 2020), low self-esteem and online vulnerability (Dutot, 2020), SM fatigue (Bright & Logan, 2018;Dhir et al., 2018), and decreased well-being and satisfaction (Dutot, 2020 ...
Article
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Social media (SM) platforms are frequently used by pre‐teen (8‐12‐year old) consumers for curating their self‐identity, developing social relationships and for learning. This paper identifies the building blocks that drive pre‐teen SM engagement. We use the Gioia method to analyse interview data collected from 32 pre‐teens and parents, in France. Findings show that the primary building blocks are FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) and social inclusive experience, being noticed online, multiplicity, excessive use (without guidelines) and self‐regulation. Identity constructs (self‐identity and social‐identity) are used to explain SM engagement – and to empirically define core conceptual building blocks (aggregate dimensions) that drive SM engagement. We contribute to consumer theory by developing a holistic research framework to examine pre‐teen SM engagement. Self‐identity and social‐identity theories help explain the factors that drive pre‐teen SM engagement and explain push/pull influences of parents and schools in encouraging or discouraging certain behaviour. We build on current research into SM usage, drawing from the fragmented existing literature, to reveal causes of both excessive screen‐time and SM usage among pre‐teen consumers, which may indicate antecedents of future adult behaviour. Practical and regulatory policy issues are considered and addressed.
... SUF is also one of the important criteria to access technology usage and previous studies indicate that SUF is closely associated with problematic smartphone use (Elhai et al., 2018), smartphone addiction (Andrade et al., 2020), rumination and boredom proneness , poor common executive function (EF) but enhanced shifting-specific abilities (Toh et al., 2021), etc. Recent studies have recommended examining SUF under their future research directions (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Some researchers calculated frequency, duration, and occurrence of smartphone use sessions and found that on average participants had 24 sessions of 7 minutes each per day and the occurrences of sessions were more on weekdays than weekends (Deng et al., 2019). ...
Article
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Despite the worldwide surge in smartphone use, there are no classification metrics based on its use. In this article, a comprehensive concept called ‘Cellulographics’ is introduced for characterization of smartphone users, which includes behavioral classification based on user characteristics like smartphone experience (SE), smartphone use skill (SUS), smartphone internet experience (SIE), smartphone use periods (SUP), smartphone screen time (SST), smartphone use frequency (SUF), smartphone use activities (SUA), and smartphone use location (SUL). This concept can be applied to any field of study without limitations, where smartphone use is involved.
... Findings indicate that there is a relationship between the need to connect with a large community and user's sex. This confirms previous studies carried out recently [21,22]. The user's education type and education level doesn't play a significant role for the user's need to socialize with other. ...
Preprint
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Purpose: The use of smart devices has increased greatly in the last ten years with users reaching out to the possibility to do more with them especially in the networking front. In this context there is a need to understand the connection between users’ social demographic factors and their way to related to their smart devices. Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the senso of belonging of a community in order to evaluate intangible benefits that employees may gain from a more immerse relationship with their devices. Method: We used a dataset of 586 anonymous respondent of an existing survey designed for capturing the relationships that humans develop with their smart devices. In particular, we investigate the relationships with smart device and particular background variables of the respondents using a chi-square test. Results: The study showed that there is a significant relationship between users’ sex and smart device type and their dependency on smart device. Male tends to think that smart device (in general) enables them to connect with a larger community. At the same time, female using smart phones feels more connected more to large community than when using other smart devices. Conclusion: This study provided several significant findings that confirm and strength previous literature works on the subject. In addition, socio demographics variables (like gender) as well as the type of smart device present a correlation between the smart device users and their tendency to stay in touch with a larger community.
... Smartphone dependency is also likely to affect girls and adolescents without financial support such as for tuition, lunch, school uniforms, and textbooks from people or institutions. Girls often use smartphones for social reasons, such as social network services (SNS) and shopping, whereas boys often use them for entertainment, e.g., games and movies [34]. The Korean government informs citizens of natural and social disasters through a cell broadcast service (CBS) by text messages. ...
Article
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This cross-sectional study identified the association between COVID-19-related perceived household financial decline and smartphone dependency among adolescents in South Korea. Data from the 2020 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of Korea was used and 54,809 middle and high school students were included. COVID-19-related perceived household financial decline was categorized as no financial decline, mild, moderate, and severe. Smartphone dependency was calculated by 10 questions and was largely categorized as yes and no, and as normal, low, and high (prevalence rate: 25.0%). Binary and multinomial regression analyses were performed to analyze the association. The more severe the financial decline, the more pronounced the risk of high-risk smartphone dependency (mild financial decline: odds ratio (OR) 1.11, 95% CI 0.96–1.28; moderate: OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.04–1.43; severe: OR 2.56, 95% CI 2.06–3.17). Poor family relationships (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.03–1.10) and severe social conflict (OR 2.99, 95% CI 2.50–3.58) were also related to smartphone dependency. The ORs were 2.63 with more than three bathrooms and 1.63 with their own bedroom. Smartphone dependency among adolescents is closely related to COVID-19-related perceived household financial decline. As smartphone dependency relates to complicated psychological issues, further evaluation is necessary, especially for vulnerable adolescents.
... issue might also create an ethical dilemma where people would be forced to carry their smartphones all the time with them. While smartphone addiction has been recognized as an issue with teenagers and younger adults (Gentina & Rowe, 2020), this ethical dilemma seems to make the smartphone addiction worse in the population. In addition, teenagers and younger adults tended to less concern about their data privacy issues (Rowe, 2020), making the idea that their privacy and personal data belong to the government more legitimized. ...
Article
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The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly created devastating damage on world economics and public health. This project identifies key concerns of end-users toward the NZ COVID-19 contact tracing app in New Zealand. The key research objective in this study is to understand the usage behaviour towards the mobile application NZ COVID-19 Tracer used for contact tracing purposes. Secondly, the study explores the reasons for using the contact tracing app. Thirdly, it examines the relationship between usage behaviour of the NZ-COVID Tracer app with age, the user's perceived health, attitude towards COVID-19, whether family or friends are infected by COVID-19, trust in maintaining social distancing, trust in data privacy, smartphone usage and the media's role in motivating people to use this app. Consequently, understanding these issues and challenges could help improve the usage of this contact tracing app, which in turn would contribute to better public health outcomes in disease management and containment. Findings of the study reveals that age, smartphone usage behaviour, and trust in privacy data protection from the app provider has a statistically significant relationship on usage behaviour of the NZ COVID Tracer app. Self-perceived health status and attitudes towards the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a significant relationship on NZ COVID Tracer app usage behaviour. While social media, such as Facebook, has been shown to be the most popular source of news for COVID-19 among New Zealanders, it is television that acted as a motivational tool to encourage people to use the contact tracing mobile application and to practice other measures to help protect against the COVID-19 pandemic.
... The research conducted in the area of the Internet shows that the user dependency on the Internet has affected their online activities such as product information search (Chu & Kim, 2011) and their online shopping experience (Carillo et al., 2017). The MDST also has been used to investigate consumer shopping behavior via mobile devices (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Now, in this study, we are going to apply this theory in the SNSs setting to examine the effect of media dependency on consumer perceived risk and perceived value of social media, as well as consumer trust in SNSs. ...
Article
Social network sites (SNSs) are an online platform which people apply to make social bonds or social relationship with their peers who share the same career or personal interests, activities, contexts or real-life relationships. The present research explores the features of SNSs that have a bearing on consumer purchase behavior in the Iranian context. The research constructs were measured, profiting from the existing marketing and social psychology theories. The research sample was selected for the college students using simple random sampling. For the test of the research hypotheses, the structural equation modeling technique was applied in SmartPLS software. The results indicated that the SNSs associated features such as reduced perceived risk and consumer trust influenced their purchase intention in such virtual contexts. In addition, usability, dependency, and involvement were variables that affected the level of trust of consumers and their perceived risk in SNSs. Moreover, designers of such platforms can enhance the usability of the platform by upgrading openness, accessibility, and speed. This study by creating a better understanding of consumer online shopping behavior in SNSs contributes to the marketing literature. This insight could be used by marketers and advertisers in the formulation and implementation of effective and coherent marketing and advertising strategies.
... Moreover, studies have shown that higher levels of materialism trigger excessive MP use, SP addiction (Y.-K. Lee, Chang, et al., 2014;Long et al., 2019) and MP dependency (Gentina & Rowe, 2020). Considering all the explanations given above, it is assumed that SP addiction, nomophobia and materialism may lead to attachment to the phone. ...
Article
The main aim of this study was to adapt the Mobile Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ) to Turkish culture. It was also aimed to investigate whether mobile phone attachment (MPA) exists in Turkish university students and whether it has the main characteristics of interpersonal attachment. This study also aimed to investigate the MPA's relationship with nomophobia, smartphone addiction and materialism, and to examine the predictive power of them on MPA. The study group consisted of a total of 242 university students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to determine the structural validity of the MAQ-TR. The goodness of fit/home/prx indices met the model fit requirements for the four-factor 13-item MAQ-TR. Reliability analyses results provided high internal consistency coefficients. Correlation analyses results showed that individuals highly attached to their phones experienced more severe symptoms of nomophobia and smartphone addiction and materialists were more likely to accept their phones as attachment object. Regression analysis showed that nomophobia, smartphone addiction and materialism were significant predictors of MPA. Given that MPA is an understudied concept, this study provides a starting point for future researches on problematic and non-problematic phone use.
... As a multifunctional tool, smartphones are used like a minicomputer by students for both educational and entertainment purposes, in addition to staying in touch with parents and friends. Obviously, today's youth are not only "connected" with others and information, but also feel insecure or fear they will miss something important when not connected [56]. This may explain part of the habitual use of smartphones among Chinese students. ...
Article
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A growing body of work has been devoted to studying the smartphone addiction in youths and its impact on their lives, but less is known about the predictors and effects of youth habitual use of smartphones. Guided by social cognitive theory, this study investigates how habitual smartphone use affects sleep quality and everyday memory based on a nationally representative sample of Chinese students (N = 2298). It uses a cluster-randomized sampling with stratification of different areas, consisting of both urban and rural students aged 6–18 years from elementary, middle, and high schools across China. It found that Chinese students exhibited a habitual smartphone use, who were generally confident in using mobile devices, but few had smartphone addiction. Significant gender and age differences were identified concerning the habitual use of smartphone. Specifically, boys demonstrated higher levels of habitual use and smartphone self-efficacy than the girls. High school students showed the highest level of habitual smartphone use compared to those in elementary and middle schools. Smartphone use duration, frequency, and self-efficacy predicted the habitual use, which also led to poorer sleep quality and worse memory outcomes. Prebedtime exposure moderated the relationship between habitual smartphone uses and sleep quality. The results show that students’ habitual smartphone use had a significant impact on their health, cognition and more, even when they exhibited little smartphone addiction. The findings contribute to a better understanding of smartphone impact on school-age youths.
... It is already widely acknowledged that people's everyday life and digitalization within is a concern of ours (see e.g. Chang & Huang, 2020;De Souza & Dick, 2009;Gentina & Rowe, 2020;Pappas, Papavlasopoulou, Mikalef, & Giannakos, 2020;Patil, Tamilmani, Rana, & Raghavan, 2020;Reyes-Menendez, Saura, & Thomas, 2020;Song et al., 2020;Vazquez et al., 2020), while examinations on the young generations' digitalized lives are still warranted in order to prepare for their education as well as for their recruitment. We should be attracting new students and be able to communicate to them how interesting, valuable and societally relevant our field is. ...
Article
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Children of today have been surrounded by digital technology since their birth. However, children of today are not equally equipped for their technology rich future: various kinds of digital divides still prevail in the society and affect the young generation and their digital futures. Schools and education of children should undergo an extensive digital transformation to be able to meet the needs of the young generation and their digitalized future. The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly and abruptly forced schools and education indeed to engage in such a transformation. In this study we examine the digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the basic education of the young generation, the variety of digital divides emerging and reinforced, and the possible barriers reported along the way. We argue that information management research should better acknowledge children, their digitalized everyday life and their basic education as significant areas of concern. We should understand them as well as allow them to shape the education we offer in the context of higher education, but we should also aim at influencing the basic education of the young generation – for the purpose of equipping them with important skills and competencies for their digital futures but also for the purpose of arousing their interest in this important field, maybe even as a career option.
Article
The unfamiliar and unusual stressful conditions due to COVID-19 have motivated employees to excessively use smartphones for non-work-related activities to alleviate the negative feelings associated with these stressful conditions. To conceptualize our research model, we employed the Compensatory Internet Use Theory (CIUT), which is associated with problematic technology usage. The proposed model investigates the influence of the following negative factors that emerged because of COVID-19 as the determinants of problematic smartphone use (PSU): remote work arrangement (RWA), intolerance of uncertainty (IU), COVID-19 anxiety (CA), and social isolation (ISO). In addition, we suggest that, although employees tend to use smartphones excessively to alleviate stressful life conditions, these conditions (RWA, IU, CA, and ISO) will lead to emotional exhaustion (EE), which will consequently result in the excessive use of smartphones. Furthermore, we are investigating the influence of PSU on employee work productivity. Finally, we are also interested in exploring the moderating role of gender in the relationships within our model. The results have shown that all hypotheses are supported, except for the influence of RWA on EE and PSU, and the influence of CA on PSU. We believe that our findings will provide researchers and businesses with a deeper understanding of this critical issue, especially in the context of smartphone usage at work.
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Gender studies is a complex, interdisciplinary field that delves into the impact of societal and cultural norms on gender-related aspects of society. In terms of marketing communications, gender studies are widely discussed across every sub-branch of marketing, including consumer behaviour, advertising, product development and brand communication. Nonetheless, the question of whether this issue has been given sufficient scientific analysis in both academia and in business remains a matter of debate. This epistemological study conducts a keyword analysis of the articles published in the top ten marketing journals over the last 25 years. In general, the articles in the sample group are found to focus on the relationship between gender and marketing mix, brand communication, corporate behaviour, consumer behaviour and stereotypes. While many countries are insensitive to gender inequality, it is thought that international publications should give more importance to studies focusing on women in particular, and it is seen that few studies focusing on gender are included in the research conducted. By analysing research that focuses on gender, this study aims to support marketing professionals for better marketing practices.
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El objetivo de nuestra investigación es medir cómo los usos y motivaciones para usar teléfonos inteligentes por parte de la joven población chilena han cambiado a través del tiempo y cómo estas motivaciones para comprometerse con los teléfonos inteligentes afectan el tiempo dedicado a enviar mensajes de texto en estos dispositivos portátiles. Replicamos una encuesta cara a cara entre millennials y centennials chilenos, realizada por primera vez en 2009 (n= 1.320), repetida en 2015 (n= 744) y realizada nuevamente en 2021 (n= 846). Esta última ola se realizó entre julio y noviembre a sujetos de entre 18 y 25 años residentes en Chile. El cuestionario incluyó 44 preguntas basadas en escalas previamente validadas en estudios que relacionan la Teoría de Usos y Gratificaciones con los teléfonos móviles, actitudes hacia la tecnología y evaluaciones de los usuarios sobre los atributos de los teléfonos móviles definidas por Albarran (2009). También se incluyeron variables relacionadas con datos demográficos (por ejemplo, zona de residencia) y de género, que los encuestados declararon. La mayoría de las motivaciones para utilizar teléfonos inteligentes medidas en nuestra encuesta de 2021 fueron las mismas que medimos en 2015 y 2009, pero otras son nuevas. Para medir cómo ha cambiado el atractivo de las motivaciones a lo largo del tiempo, realizamos una comparación de medias. También realizamos un análisis factorial exploratorio para agregar motivaciones y análisis de regresión para cuantificar cómo las motivaciones afectaban el tiempo que los jóvenes dedicaban a enviar mensajes de texto.
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The avatar-driven metaverse represents the convergence of the physical and digital realms using real-time 3D software. We leverage the uses, gratifications, and customer engagement (CE) theories to study factors impacting Generation Z’s (Gen Z) engagement with the multisensory immersive metaverse environment. Our research on 204 Gen Z participants from the USA (46% female) indicates that Gen Z’s hedonic needs for engaging with the metaverse are higher than their cognitive needs. Self-expression (symbolic gratification) and the desired enhancement of reality mediate the relationship between hedonic needs and CE. Using a moderated serial mediation model, we show that the effects of serial mediation are moderated by gender. This research enhances the behavioural science research on new-age technology usage amongst Gen Z.
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La Teoría de Usos y Gratificaciones es una de las más fértiles en el campo de la investigación en Comunicación. Desde su nacimiento, en los años 40, ha evolucionado e incorporado nuevas variables a partir de aplicaciones en diversos medios, sobre todo medios sociales, y contextos demográficos. Este artículo, a partir de una revisión sistematizada de 88 trabajos publicados en las bases de datos de referencia, describe los objetos de estudio, las metodologías y las formas de aplicación de esta teoría en los años 2020-2022. Los resultados demuestran sus diversas formas de aplicación al tiempo que señalan su vigencia como marco teórico útil desde el cual se exploran y reportan las motivaciones y necesidades de las personas para usar diversos medios, así como los efectos percibidos. En particular, la población recurrente en los estudios son los jóvenes, en correspondencia con los medios sociales y plataformas sobre las cuales se investiga. Así mismo, la encuesta es la técnica mayoritariamente usada. No obstante, se advierte que la mayoría de las veces, los autores apenas mencionan la Teoría de Usos y Gratificaciones sin proponer un desarrollo conceptual o metodológico pertinente que permita discutir sus limitaciones, profundizar sus alcances y actualizar sus posibilidades.
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Understanding how people use technology remains important, particularly when measuring the impact this might have on individuals and society. However, despite a growing body of resources that can quantify smartphone use, research within psychology and social science overwhelmingly relies on self-reported assessments. These have yet to convincingly demonstrate an ability to predict objective behavior. Here, and for the first time, we compare a variety of smartphone use and ‘addiction’ scales with objective behaviors derived from Apple's Screen Time application. While correlations between psychometric scales and objective behavior are generally poor, single estimates and measures that attempt to frame technology use as habitual rather than ‘addictive’ correlate more favorably with subsequent behavior. We conclude that existing self-report instruments are unlikely to be sensitive enough to accurately predict basic technology use related behaviors. As a result, conclusions regarding the psychological impact of technology are unreliable when relying solely on these measures to quantify typical usage.
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The psychometric properties of the Parental Smartphone Use Management Scale (PSUMS) and its prospective relationships with symptoms of smartphone addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were studies in a sample of parents of adolescents with ADHD. This is a scale to measure parents’ perceived self-efficacy on managing their children’s smartphone use. Construct validity (exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis), criterion-related validity (known-group validity and concurrent validity), and reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) were performed for data analyses. The results showed that the PSUMS had good factorials validity and high reliabilities, with Cronbach’s alphas ranging between 0.93 and 0.95. The 17-item PSUMS accounted for 78.58% of the total variance and contains three theoretically and statistically appropriate subscales: reactive management, proactive management, and monitoring. Strong relationships were found between parental smartphone use management and symptoms of smartphone addiction and ADHD in expected directions. Moreover, parents of children with smartphone addiction yielded lower scores on all three PSUMS subscales than parents of children without smartphone addiction. The PSUMS is considered a valuable and reliable tool in the study of parental management on their adolescent children’s smartphone use, while providing us with important targets for intervention.
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Previous research has shown that problematic smartphone use (PSU) is related to several affect-related psychopathology variables. Emotion dysregulation has been regarded as a central psychological factor associated with that type of psychopathology. In this paper, the association between expressive emotional suppression, a form of emotion dysregulation, with PSU was investigated. Furthermore, we tested if types of smartphone use (process and social use) mediated that association. Three hundred American college students participated in a web-based survey that included the Smartphone Addiction Scale (for problematic smartphone use), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (assessing suppression), and Process vs. Social Smartphone Usage scale. We found that expressive suppression was correlated with both process smartphone use and PSU severity. Mediation analysis showed that process smartphone use completely mediated relations between suppression and PSU severity. The findings suggest that dysfunctional emotion regulation could lead to more process smartphone use that, in turn, may manifest in PSU severity. Contributions and limitations of the study are discussed.
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Despite a growing awareness that problematic usage of smartphones is becoming a significant public health issue, there is limited research on how problematic smartphone usage relates to the humanistic concepts of well-being, particularly those captured in Ryff's six psychological well-being dimensions: positive relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, and self-acceptance. The current study aimed to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between general and problematic smartphone usage and subjective well-being and psychological well-being using long-form, theoretically grounded measures. Australian adults (n = 539, 79% female; age in years M = 25.1, SD = 7.8) completed Diener's Satisfaction with Life Scale, the PANAS, and Ryff's 84-item measure of psychological well-being. Results showed that problematic smartphone usage was correlated with lower well-being on almost all scales. In particular, negative affect, autonomy, and environmental mastery had the largest negative correlations with problematic smartphone usage. Given the stable and dispositional nature of well-being, it seems likely that much of the relationship is driven by a common underlying tendency to experience anxiety, negative emotions, and a lack of control, combined with a tendency to engage in maladaptive coping and compulsive behavior.
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Despite decades of research on materialism, there are few viable strategies for reducing materialism in younger consumers. In this paper, we present two studies conducted among over 900 adolescents that reveal a promising strategy for decreasing materialism: fostering gratitude. In Study 1, results from a nationally representative survey showed that children and adolescents with a grateful disposition were less materialistic. In Study 2, experimental evidence showed that an intervention designed to increase gratitude (i.e. keeping a gratitude journal) significantly reduced materialism among adolescents and also attenuated materialism’s negative effect on generosity. Using real money and donation as a behavioral measure, we found that adolescents who kept a gratitude journal donated 60% more of their earnings to charity compared to those in the control condition. We discuss the implications of our findings, offer some suggestions for putting our results into action, and provide an agenda for future research in this domain.
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Aims In light of the rise in research on technological addictions and smartphone addiction in particular, the aim of this paper was to review the relevant literature on the topic of smartphone addiction and determine whether this disorder exists or if it does not adequately satisfy the criteria for addiction. Methods We reviewed quantitative and qualitative studies on smartphone addiction and analyzed their methods and conclusions to make a determination on the suitability of the diagnosis “addiction” to excessive and problematic smartphone use. Results Although the majority of research in the field declares that smartphones are addictive or takes the existence of smartphone addiction as granted, we did not find sufficient support from the addiction perspective to confirm the existence of smartphone addiction at this time. The behaviors observed in the research could be better labeled as problematic or maladaptive smartphone use and their consequences do not meet the severity levels of those caused by addiction. Discussion and conclusions Addiction is a disorder with severe effects on physical and psychological health. A behavior may have a similar presentation as addiction in terms of excessive use, impulse control problems, and negative consequences, but that does not mean that it should be considered an addiction. We propose moving away from the addiction framework when studying technological behaviors and using other terms such as “problematic use” to describe them. We recommend that problematic technology use is to be studied in its sociocultural context with an increased focus on its compensatory functions, motivations, and gratifications.
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Background and aims The latest (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders included Internet gaming disorder (IGD) as a disorder that needs further research among different general populations. In line with this recommendation, the primary objective of this was to explore the relationships between IGD, sleep habits, and academic achievement in Lebanese adolescents. Methods Lebanese high-school students (N = 524, 47.9% males) participated in a paper survey that included the Internet Gaming Disorder Test and demographic information. The sample’s mean average age was 16.2 years (SD = 1.0). Results The pooled prevalence of IGD was 9.2% in the sample. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated that IGD was associated with being younger, lesser sleep, and lower academic achievement. While more casual online gamers also played offline, all the gamers with IGD reported playing online only. Those with IGD slept significantly less hours per night (5 hr) compared with casual online gamers (7 hr). The school grade average of gamers with IGD was the lowest among all groups of gamers, and below the passing school grade average. Conclusions These findings shed light on sleep disturbances and poor academic achievement in relation to Lebanese adolescents identified with IGD. Students who are not performing well at schools should be monitored for their IGD when assessing the different factors behind their low academic performance.
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This study aimed to examine smartphone use patterns, smartphone addiction characteristics, and the predictive factors of the smartphone addiction in middle school students in South Korea. According to the Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale scores, 563 (30.9%) were classified as a risk group for smartphone addiction and 1261 (69.1%) were identified as a normal user group. The adolescents used mobile messengers for the longest, followed by Internet surfing, gaming, and social networking service use. The two groups showed significant differences in smartphone use duration, awareness of game overuse, and purposes of playing games. The predictive factors of smartphone addiction were daily smartphone and social networking service use duration, and the awareness of game overuse.
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Contemporary technological advances have led to a significant increase in using mobile technologies. Recent research has pointed to potential problems as a consequence of mobile overuse, including addiction, financial problems, dangerous use (i.e. whilst driving) and prohibited use (i.e. use in forbidden areas). The aim of this study is to extend previous findings regarding the predictive power of psychopathological symptoms (depression, anxiety and stress), mobile phone use (i.e. calls, SMS, time spent on the phone, as well as the engagement in specific smartphone activities) across Generations X and Y on problematic mobile phone use in a sample of 273 adults. Findings revealed prohibited use and dependence were predicted by calls/day, time on the phone and using social media. Only for dependent mobile phone use (rather than prohibited), stress appeared as significant. Using social media and anxiety significantly predicted belonging to Generation Y, with calls per day predicted belonging to Generation X. This finding suggests Generation Y are more likely to use asynchronous social media-based communication, whereas Generation X engage more in synchronous communication. The findings have implications for prevention and awareness-raising efforts of possibly problematic mobile phone use for educators, parents and individuals, particularly including dependence and prohibited use.
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Online social networks (OSNs) continue to have a transformative influence on how people socialize, partially because they help facilitate social contact that is crucial to fulfilling an innate need to belong. However, there is increasing evidence that some users suffer from OSN addiction, expressed as OSN obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Using the need-to-belong theory as our foundation, we seek a deeper understanding of the relationship between OSN belongingness and OSN OCD by examining the effects OSN-specific uses and gratifications (U&Gs) and negative emotions have on it. We find that OSN belongingness is positively associated with use of the OSN to gratify needs for purposive value, self-discovery, maintaining interpersonal interconnectivity, social enhancement, and entertainment value. However, gratification of only the purposive value and social enhancement needs increase the likelihood of OSN OCD. Furthermore, we find that while OSN belongingness decreases the likelihood of OSN envy and anxiety, it slightly increases the likelihood of OSN fear of missing out; notably, all three of these negative emotions drive OSN OCD. Our findings indicate healthy socialization use by well-adjusted individuals decreases OSN OCD risks, but those experiencing unstable emotional responses or unhealthy socialization on the OSN should avoid use.
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Problematic use of social networking sites (SNS) and its adverse consequences has become prevalent; yet, little is known about its conceptualization and etiology. This study draws on dual-system theory to investigate the drivers of problematic use of SNS and its adverse consequences. SEM analyses of time-lagged data collected from 341 Facebook users implicate an imbalance between two systems in the human mind, involving strong cognitive-emotional preoccupation with using the SNS (system 1) and weak cognitive-behavioral control over using the SNS (system 2), as the driver of problematic SNS use behaviors. Problematic use of SNS in turn, diminished users’ academic performance. This study contributes to research on the dark side of IS use by conceptualizing problematic IS use and explaining its drivers and consequences. It demonstrates that the dual-system theory is an appropriate theoretical perspective for explaining problematic IS use, superior to planned behavior-based models. It also explains some of the precursors of the dual system and offers practical implications to IT artifact designers and users.
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Drawing on the rational addiction framework, this study explores the digital vulnerabilities driven by dependence on mobile social apps (e.g., social network sites and social games). Rational addicts anticipate the future consequences of their current behaviors and attempt to maximize utility from their intertemporal consumption choices. Conversely, myopic addicts tend toward immediate gratification and fail to fully recognize the future consequences of their current consumption. In lieu of conducting self-report surveys or aggregatelevel demand estimation, this research examines addictive behaviors on the basis of consumption quantity at an individual level. To empirically validate rational addiction in the context of social app consumption, we collect and analyze 13-month, individual-level panel data on the weekly app usage of thousands of smartphone users. Results indicate that the average social app user conducts herself in a forward-looking manner and rationally adjusts consumption over time to derive optimal utility. The subgroup analysis, however, indicates that substantial variations in addictiveness and forward-looking propensities exist across demographically diverse groups. For example, addictive behaviors toward social network sites are more myopic in nature among older, less-educated, high-income groups. Additionally, the type of social app moderates the effects of demographic characteristics on the nature of addictive behaviors. We provide implications that policymakers can use to effectively manage mobile addiction problems, with the recommendations focusing on asymmetric social policies (e.g., information- and capacity-enhancing measures).
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Within the last two decades, many studies have addressed the clinical phenomenon of Internet-use disorders, with a particular focus on Internet-gaming disorder. Based on previous theoretical considerations and empirical findings, we suggest an Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model of specific Internet-use disorders. The I-PACE model is a theoretical framework for the processes underlying the development and maintenance of an addictive use of certain Internet applications or sites promoting gaming, gambling, pornography viewing, shopping, or communication. The model is composed as a process model. Specific Internet-use disorders are considered to be the consequence of interactions between predisposing factors, such as neurobiological and psychological constitutions, moderators, such as coping styles and Internet-related cognitive biases, and mediators, such as affective and cognitive responses to situational triggers in combination with reduced executive functioning. Conditioning processes may strengthen these associations within an addiction process. Although the hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of specific Internet-use disorders, summarized in the I-PACE model, must be further tested empirically, implications for treatment interventions are suggested.
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Method: We conducted a systematic review of the relationship between problematic use with psychopathology. Using scholarly bibliographic databases, we screened 117 total citations, resulting in 23 peer-reviewer papers examining statistical relations between standardized measures of problematic smartphone use/use severity and the severity of psychopathology. Results: Most papers examined problematic use in relation to depression, anxiety, chronic stress and/or low self-esteem. Across this literature, without statistically adjusting for other relevant variables, depression severity was consistently related to problematic smartphone use, demonstrating at least medium effect sizes. Anxiety was also consistently related to problem use, but with small effect sizes. Stress was somewhat consistently related, with small to medium effects. Self-esteem was inconsistently related, with small to medium effects when found. Statistically adjusting for other relevant variables yielded similar but somewhat smaller effects. Limitations: We only included correlational studies in our systematic review, but address the few relevant experimental studies also. Conclusions: We discuss causal explanations for relationships between problem smartphone use and psychopathology.
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Adolescents have increasing discretionary income, expenditures, and purchasing power. Inventory shrinkage costs $123.4 billion globally to retail outlets. Adolescents are disproportionately responsible for theft and shoplifting. Both parents and peers significantly influence adolescents’ monetary values, materialism, and dishonesty as consumers. In this study, we develop a theoretical model involving teenagers’ social (parental and peer) attachment and their consumer ethics, treat adolescents’ money attitude in the context of youth materialism as a mediator, and simultaneously examine the direct (Social Attachment → Consumer Ethics) and indirect paths (Social Attachment → Money and Materialism → Consumer Ethics). Results of 1018 adolescents (France = 534 and China = 484; average age = 15.21) illustrate that social attachment discourages unethical beliefs directly, but encourages it indirectly through monetary values. Our multi-group analyses demonstrate a novel paradox: The correlation between parental and peer attachments is smaller in France than in China, but similar across gender. Parents contribute more than peers to social attachment in France, but both carry equal weight in China. There is a negative direct path for the Chinese sample and for girls. Indirectly, parental attachment prevents French teenagers’ unethical beliefs, whereas peer attachment promotes boys’ unethical intention, supporting the notion—bad company corrupts good morals. Across both culture and gender, monetary attitude excites dishonesty consistently for all adolescents. A negative direct path exists for Chinese boys only (the Pygmalion Effect for male little emperors). Overall, social attachment reduces unethical beliefs. Parental and peer supports shape teenagers’ monetary intelligence and ethical or unethical decision making, differently, across culture and gender. We provide theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to ethical parenting, peer attachment, monetary values, and business ethics.
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What causes adolescents to develop consumer’ ethical beliefs? Prior research has largely focused on the negative influence of peers and negative patterns of parent–child interactions to explain risky and unethical consumer behaviors. We take a different perspective by focusing on the positive support of parents and peers in adolescent social development. An integrative model is developed that links parental and peer support with adolescents’ self-worth motives, their materialistic tendencies, and their consumer ethical beliefs. In a study of 984 adolescents, we demonstrate support for a sequential mediation model in which peer and parental support is positively related to adolescents’ self-esteem and feelings of power, which are each associated with decreased materialism as a means of compensating for low self-worth. This reduced materialism is, in turn, associated with more ethical consumer beliefs.
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To date, information systems (IS) research mainly has provided a monolithic view of information technology (IT) use, considering it to be a desired behaviour with positive outcomes. However, given the dramatic increase in the use of technology during the last few years, susceptibility to IT addiction is increasingly becoming an important issue for technology users and IS researchers. In this paper, we report the results of a study that focuses on identifying variations in user liability to IT addiction, which reflects the susceptibility of individual users to develop IT addiction. First, a review of the literature in different disciplines (e.g. health, psychology and IS) allows us to better understand the concepts of IT addiction and liability to addiction. The literature review also provides an overview of the antecedents and consequences associated with IT addiction. Then, building on the analysis of 15 in-depth interviews and 182 exploratory open-ended surveys collected from smartphone users, we apply the concept of liability to addiction in the IT use context and propose a typological theory of user liability to IT addiction. Our typology reveals five ideal types; each can be associated to a user profile (addict, fanatic, highly engaged, regular and thoughtful). Building upon both the extant literature and our results, we put forth propositions to extend the theoretical contributions of the study. We finally discuss the contributions and implications of our paper for research and practice.
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Background and aims: Smartphone addiction, its association with smartphone use, and its predictors have not yet been studied in a European sample. This study investigated indicators of smartphone use, smartphone addiction, and their associations with demographic and health behaviour-related variables in young people. Methods: A convenience sample of 1,519 students from 127 Swiss vocational school classes participated in a survey assessing demographic and health-related characteristics as well as indicators of smartphone use and addiction. Smartphone addiction was assessed using a short version of the Smartphone Addiction Scale for Adolescents (SAS-SV). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate demographic and health-related predictors of smartphone addiction. Results: Smartphone addiction occurred in 256 (16.9%) of the 1,519 students. Longer duration of smartphone use on a typical day, a shorter time period until first smartphone use in the morning, and reporting that social networking was the most personally relevant smartphone function were associated with smartphone addiction. Smartphone addiction was more prevalent in younger adolescents (15-16 years) compared with young adults (19 years and older), students with both parents born outside Switzerland, persons reporting lower physical activity, and those reporting higher stress. Alcohol and tobacco consumption were unrelated to smartphone addiction. Discussion: Different indicators of smartphone use are associated with smartphone addiction and subgroups of young people have a higher prevalence of smartphone addiction. Conclusions: The study provides the first insights into smartphone use, smartphone addiction, and predictors of smartphone addiction in young people from a European country, which should be extended in further studies.
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