Background: According to the recent seriousness of smartphone overdependence in adolescents, multifaceted efforts are required to prevent smartphone overdependence. Youth activities are being used as an important factor in the prevention and treatment of smartphone overdependence. However, studies examining the relationship between youth activities and smartphone overdependence are insufficient, and longitudinal studies are also lacking. Therefore, this study aims to examine the longitudinal relationship between youth activities and smartphone overdependence.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to confirm changes in smartphone overdependence in adolescence and to examine the contemporaneous and lagged effects of adolescent activities on smartphone overdependence.
Methodology: In this study, the study subjects were selected using Korean child and adolescent panel data, and data from the first to third grades of middle school were used for analysis. The subjects of the study were 1,401 male students (54.2%) and 1,182 female students (45.8%), totaling 2,564 students.
Findings: First, as a result of examining the trend of smartphone overdependence in adolescence, it was confirmed that smartphone overdependence increased linearly. Second, the contemporaneous effect of the number of participation in youth activities on smartphone overdependence was statistically significant. However, it was found that the number of participation in youth activities in the second year of middle school had a negative effect on smartphone overdependence. In addition, satisfaction with participation in youth activities was statistically significant at all time points except for the third year of middle school. Third, there was a lagged effect in the relationship between the number of participation in youth activities in the first year of middle school and the smartphone overdependence of the second year in middle school.
Conclusions: Youth activities should be provided to prevent and treat of smartphone overdependence in adolescence. In particular, it was suggested that youth activities during the first year of middle school to prevent smartphone overdependence are effective in preventing smartphone overdependence.
