Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents
Research examining the relations among adolescent’s problematic smartphone use, parent–adolescent conflicts about smartphone use, family communication, and adolescent communication skills is scarce. Thus, the study empirically examined a model of the direct and indirect effects of adolescents’ probl...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Adolescents |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7051/4/1/8 |
| _version_ | 1827307480957321216 |
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| author | Marina Merkaš Matea Bodrožić Selak Ana Žulec Ivanković |
| author_facet | Marina Merkaš Matea Bodrožić Selak Ana Žulec Ivanković |
| author_sort | Marina Merkaš |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research examining the relations among adolescent’s problematic smartphone use, parent–adolescent conflicts about smartphone use, family communication, and adolescent communication skills is scarce. Thus, the study empirically examined a model of the direct and indirect effects of adolescents’ problematic smartphone use on adolescent communication skills via family communication and parent–adolescent conflicts about smartphone use. The data used for the creation of this paper came from a sample of 284 adolescents (59.4% girls), aged 10 to 15, who participated in a four-wave longitudinal study (2021–2023) examining the effects of smartphone use on well-being and development. Adolescents rated their problematic smartphone use (wave 1), conflicts with parents about their smartphone use (wave 2), family communication (wave 3), and communication skills (wave 4). There was no support for the direct effect of problematic smartphone use on communication skills. Our path analysis showed a significant indirect effect of problematic smartphone use on communication skills via family communication. Our analysis also showed a significant direct effect of problematic smartphone use on conflicts between parents and adolescents about the time spent using smartphones and balancing activities with smartphone use. The findings of this study imply that excessive and extensive smartphone use may pose a risk factor for frequent parent–adolescent conflicts, poor family communication, and poor adolescent communication skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:39:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-511ba9bc825d41c38ecab971c3a908b4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-7051 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T18:39:45Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Adolescents |
| spelling | doaj.art-511ba9bc825d41c38ecab971c3a908b42024-03-27T13:15:32ZengMDPI AGAdolescents2673-70512024-02-014110711910.3390/adolescents4010008Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with AdolescentsMarina Merkaš0Matea Bodrožić Selak1Ana Žulec Ivanković2University Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaUniversity Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaUniversity Department of Psychology, Catholic University of Croatia, Ilica 242, 10000 Zagreb, CroatiaResearch examining the relations among adolescent’s problematic smartphone use, parent–adolescent conflicts about smartphone use, family communication, and adolescent communication skills is scarce. Thus, the study empirically examined a model of the direct and indirect effects of adolescents’ problematic smartphone use on adolescent communication skills via family communication and parent–adolescent conflicts about smartphone use. The data used for the creation of this paper came from a sample of 284 adolescents (59.4% girls), aged 10 to 15, who participated in a four-wave longitudinal study (2021–2023) examining the effects of smartphone use on well-being and development. Adolescents rated their problematic smartphone use (wave 1), conflicts with parents about their smartphone use (wave 2), family communication (wave 3), and communication skills (wave 4). There was no support for the direct effect of problematic smartphone use on communication skills. Our path analysis showed a significant indirect effect of problematic smartphone use on communication skills via family communication. Our analysis also showed a significant direct effect of problematic smartphone use on conflicts between parents and adolescents about the time spent using smartphones and balancing activities with smartphone use. The findings of this study imply that excessive and extensive smartphone use may pose a risk factor for frequent parent–adolescent conflicts, poor family communication, and poor adolescent communication skills.https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7051/4/1/8problematic smartphone usefamily communicationparent–adolescent conflictcommunication skillslongitudinal study |
| spellingShingle | Marina Merkaš Matea Bodrožić Selak Ana Žulec Ivanković Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents Adolescents problematic smartphone use family communication parent–adolescent conflict communication skills longitudinal study |
| title | Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents |
| title_full | Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents |
| title_fullStr | Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents |
| title_full_unstemmed | Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents |
| title_short | Problematic Smartphone Use and Communication in Families with Adolescents |
| title_sort | problematic smartphone use and communication in families with adolescents |
| topic | problematic smartphone use family communication parent–adolescent conflict communication skills longitudinal study |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7051/4/1/8 |
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