Researching the Links between Smartphone Behavior and Adolescent Wellbeing: The Study Protocol for the FUTURE (WP4) Ecological Momentary Assessment Study (Preprint)

Abstract

Smartphone ownership has increased among teens within the last decade, with up to 89% of adolescents owning a smartphone and through it engaging daily with the online world. Although the results of recent meta-analyses suggest that engaging digital technology plays only a small role in adolescent wellbeing, parents, professionals, and policy makers remain concerned about the impact that the instant connectivity of smartphones has on adolescent wellbeing.

Herein, we introduce the protocol of a research study investigating the associations between adolescent smartphone use and different facets of well-being (social, physical, psychological) that aims to apply innovative methods to address limitations of existing empirical studies.

This 12-month prospective study of adolescents uses a repeated measurement-burst design with Ecological Momentary Assessment methodology. Adolescents (N=203; age range 13-17) complete baseline assessments through online questionnaires, four 14-day intensive data collection bursts, and an online questionnaire at the end of the study. As part of the four measurement bursts, adolescent smartphone behavior is assessed objectively by passive data collection of smartphone data logs and through self-reports in short questionnaires administered via a custom-built Android app.

The protocol describes the study objectives, research tools (including the development of the Android app and specialized software) and process (including pilot studies the main study, and targets for machine learning approaches). Two of the 203 enrolled participants provided no data during the first data collection burst of the main study. Preliminary analyses of the data from the first data collection burst indicate an acceptable level of compliance (72.25%) with the daily questionnaires. The design of the study will allow for the assessment of both within- and between-person variability in smartphone behavior, as well as short-term variation and long-term change in smartphone behavior and how it impacts indicators of social, physical, and psychological wellbeing.

The innovative methods applied in this study (objective smartphone logs, EMA, machine learning) will allow for a more nuanced assessment of the links between smartphone use and wellbeing, informing strategies to help adolescents navigate the online world more constructively in terms of the development of their physical, social and psychological wellbeing.