IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i13p4842-d380640.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mind over Matter: Testing the Efficacy of an Online Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Distraction from Smartphone Use

Author

Listed:
  • Melina A. Throuvala

    (International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

  • Mark D. Griffiths

    (International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

  • Mike Rennoldson

    (Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

  • Daria J. Kuss

    (International Gaming Research Unit, Psychology Department, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK)

Abstract

Evidence suggests a growing call for the prevention of excessive smartphone and social media use and the ensuing distraction that arises affecting academic achievement and productivity. A ten-day online randomized controlled trial with the use of smartphone apps, engaging participants in mindfulness exercises, self-monitoring and mood tracking, was implemented amongst UK university students ( n = 143). Participants were asked to complete online pre- and post-intervention assessments. Results indicated high effect sizes in reduction of smartphone distraction and improvement scores on a number of self-reported secondary psychological outcomes. The intervention was not effective in reducing habitual behaviours, nomophobia, or time spent on social media. Mediation analyses demonstrated that: (i) emotional self-awareness but not mindful attention mediated the relationship between intervention effects and smartphone distraction, and (ii) online vigilance mediated the relationship between smartphone distraction and problematic social media use. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the efficacy of an intervention for decreased smartphone distraction and highlights psychological processes involved in this emergent phenomenon in the smartphone literature. Online interventions may serve as complementary strategies to reduce distraction levels and promote insight into online engagement. More research is required to elucidate the mechanisms of digital distraction and assess its implications in problematic use.

Suggested Citation

  • Melina A. Throuvala & Mark D. Griffiths & Mike Rennoldson & Daria J. Kuss, 2020. "Mind over Matter: Testing the Efficacy of an Online Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Distraction from Smartphone Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-30, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4842-:d:380640
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4842/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4842/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Macintyre & Daniel Ferris & Briana Gonçalves & Neil Quinn, 2018. "What has economics got to do with it? The impact of socioeconomic factors on mental health and the case for collective action," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Daria J. Kuss & Lydia Harkin & Eiman Kanjo & Joel Billieux, 2018. "Problematic Smartphone Use: Investigating Contemporary Experiences Using a Convergent Design," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Deaton, Angus & Cartwright, Nancy, 2018. "Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 2-21.
    4. Annika Howells & Itai Ivtzan & Francisco Eiroa-Orosa, 2016. "Putting the ‘app’ in Happiness: A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Smartphone-Based Mindfulness Intervention to Enhance Wellbeing," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 163-185, February.
    5. Bandura, Albert, 1991. "Social cognitive theory of self-regulation," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 248-287, December.
    6. Vittoria Franchina & Mariek Vanden Abeele & Antonius J. Van Rooij & Gianluca Lo Coco & Lieven De Marez, 2018. "Fear of Missing Out as a Predictor of Problematic Social Media Use and Phubbing Behavior among Flemish Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Sina Ostendorf & Elisa Wegmann & Matthias Brand, 2020. "Problematic Social-Networks-Use in German Children and Adolescents—The Interaction of Need to Belong, Online Self-Regulative Competences, and Age," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Colder Carras, Michelle & Kalbarczyk, Anna & Wells, Kurrie & Banks, Jaime & Kowert, Rachel & Gillespie, Colleen & Latkin, Carl, 2018. "Connection, meaning, and distraction: A qualitative study of video game play and mental health recovery in veterans treated for mental and/or behavioral health problems," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 124-132.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meredith E. David & James A. Roberts, 2020. "Developing and Testing a Scale Designed to Measure Perceived Phubbing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-15, November.
    2. Olatz Lopez-Fernandez, 2021. "Emerging Health and Education Issues Related to Internet Technologies and Addictive Problems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Melina A. Throuvala & Mark D. Griffiths & Mike Rennoldson & Daria J. Kuss, 2019. "A ‘Control Model’ of Social Media Engagement in Adolescence: A Grounded Theory Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Carlos Bazan, 2022. "Effect of the University’s Environment and Support System on Subjective Social Norms as Precursor of the Entrepreneurial Intention of Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, October.
    3. Perrotta, Manuela & Geampana, Alina, 2020. "The trouble with IVF and randomised control trials: Professional legitimation narratives on time-lapse imaging and evidence-informed care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    4. Irene Chu & Mai Chi Vu, 2022. "The Nature of the Self, Self-regulation and Moral Action: Implications from the Confucian Relational Self and Buddhist Non-self," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 245-262, September.
    5. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2019. "Shackling the Identification Police?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(4), pages 1016-1026, April.
    6. Omar Al-Ubaydli & John List & Claire Mackevicius & Min Sok Lee & Dana Suskind, 2019. "How Can Experiments Play a Greater Role in Public Policy? 12 Proposals from an Economic Model of Scaling," Artefactual Field Experiments 00679, The Field Experiments Website.
    7. Church, Bryan K. & Kuang, Xi (Jason) & Liu, Yuebing (Sarah), 2019. "The effects of measurement basis and slack benefits on honesty in budget reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 74-84.
    8. María-Carmen Ricoy & Sara Martínez-Carrera & Isabel Martínez-Carrera, 2022. "Social Overview of Smartphone Use by Teenagers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-15, November.
    9. Narwal, Preeti & Rai, Shivam, 2022. "Individual differences and moral disengagement in Pay-What-You-Want pricing," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 528-547.
    10. Rui Zhen & Ru-De Liu & Wei Hong & Xiao Zhou, 2019. "How do Interpersonal Relationships Relieve Adolescents’ Problematic Mobile Phone Use? The Roles of Loneliness and Motivation to Use Mobile Phones," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-12, June.
    11. Martin, Will, 2021. "Tools for measuring the full impacts of agricultural interventions," IFPRI-MCC technical papers 2, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    12. Kabeer, Naila, 2020. "‘Misbehaving’ RCTs: The confounding problem of human agency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    13. Bellés Obrero, Cristina & Lombardi, María, 2019. "Teacher Performance Pay and Student Learning: Evidence from a Nationwide Program in Peru," IZA Discussion Papers 12600, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Yuan Zheng & Jingyi Zhou & Xianglong Zeng & Mingyan Jiang & Tian P. S. Oei, 2022. "A New Second-Generation Mindfulness-Based Intervention Focusing on Well-Being: A Randomized Control Trial of Mindfulness-Based Positive Psychology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 2703-2724, August.
    15. Sophie van Huellen & Duo Qin, 2019. "Compulsory Schooling and Returns to Education: A Re-Examination," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Xu, Xiaojing & Chen, Chien-fei & Zhu, Xiaojuan & Hu, Qinran, 2018. "Promoting acceptance of direct load control programs in the United States: Financial incentive versus control option," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1278-1287.
    17. Jaeyeob Jeong & Myeonggil Choi, 2017. "The Expected Job Satisfaction Affecting Entrepreneurial Intention as Career Choice in the Cultural and Artistic Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-16, September.
    18. Marchionni, Caterina & Reijula, Samuli, 2018. "What is mechanistic evidence, and why do we need it for evidence-based policy?," SocArXiv 4ufbm, Center for Open Science.
    19. Yannick van Hierden & Sharyn Rundle-Thiele & Timo Dietrich, 2022. "Improving Well-Being in Young Adults: A Social Marketing Proof-of-Concept," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-16, April.
    20. Gianluca Santoro & Antonino Costanzo & Christian Franceschini & Vittorio Lenzo & Alessandro Musetti & Adriano Schimmenti, 2024. "Insecure Minds through the Looking Glass: The Mediating Role of Mentalization in the Relationships between Adult Attachment Styles and Problematic Social Media Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(3), pages 1-15, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4842-:d:380640. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.