The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Problematic Smartphone Use: Comparison between Problematic and Non-Problematic Adolescent Users

Natalio Extremera, Cirenia Quintana-Orts, Nicolás Sánchez-Álvarez and Lourdes Rey
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Natalio Extremera: Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Cirenia Quintana-Orts: Department of Social, Evolutionary and Educational Psychology, University of Huelva, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Av. Fuerzas Armadas, 21007 Huelva, Spain
Nicolás Sánchez-Álvarez: Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Lourdes Rey: Faculty of Psychology, University of Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: Prior work has suggested that individuals with deficits in emotion regulation skills are prone to compulsive behaviour and to following maladaptive coping strategies, such as smartphone overuse, to manage negative moods. Adolescence is a vulnerable developmental stage for deficits in emotion regulation, and these are linked to excessive smartphone use. The present study is the first to examine the links between the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation (CER) strategies and problematic smartphone use in a sample of adolescents. A total of 845 Spanish adolescents (455 females) completed the Spanish versions of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and the Smartphone Addiction Scale, along with a socio-demographic survey. The adolescents were divided into two groups: Non-problematic smartphone users ( n = 491, 58.1%) and problematic smartphone users ( n = 354, 41.9%). Significant group differences were found, with the problematic users reporting significantly higher scores for all maladaptive CER strategies, including higher self-blame, rumination, blaming of others and catastrophising. The results from logistic regression analyses show that rumination, catastrophising and blaming of others were the most important variables for distinguishing between the two groups, along with gender and parental control outside the home. In summary, these findings suggest the importance of specific maladaptive CER strategies in problematic smartphone use and provide insight for relevant targets for intervention designs.

Keywords: cognitive emotion regulation; problematic smartphone use; coping profile; mobile phone usage; adolescence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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