A network analysis of problematic smartphone use symptoms in a student sample

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Previous research has established risk factors for problematic smartphone use (PSU), but few studies to date have explored the structure of PSU symptoms. This study capitalizes on network analysis to identify the core symptoms of PSU in a large sample of students. METHODS: This research investigated 26,950 grade 4 students (male = 13,271) and 11,687 grade 8 students (male = 5,739) using the smartphone addiction proneness scale (SAPS). The collected data were analyzed using a network analysis method, which can provide centrality indexes to determine the core symptoms of PSU. The two networks from the different groups were compared using a permutation test. RESULTS: The results indicated that the core symptoms of students' problematic smartphone use were the loss of control and continued excessive use across the two samples. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that loss of control is a key feature of problematic smartphone use. The results also provide some evidence relevant to previous research from the perspective of network analysis and some suggestions for future treatment or prevention of students' problematic smartphone use.