Adolescents’ academic stress and problematic smartphone usage

What is it about?

When users’ motivations to use smartphones are grounded in stress they are more likely to use the smartphone in an excessive way. Is the relationship between stress and problematic smartphone usage direct? The purpose of this study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between academic stress and problematic smartphone usage, and, more importantly, whether problem-focused coping moderates the association between academic stress and depressive symptoms.

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Why is it important?

Our findings show that adolescents may be susceptible to the negative influence of academic stress and may use smartphones as a way to cope with the stress. Our results also support that an active coping style, a problem-focused coping strategy we studied, may help adolescents regulate their negative moods in the face of stressful events. Our results imply the importance of emotion regulation in adjustment to stress, and in decreasing problematic smartphone usage. Additionally, helping students coping with their issues actively can be an effective perspective to design intervention.

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