Participants will download a phone-tracking app for a week to track phone usage, providing objective data on usage patterns. Quantitative tasks and questionnaires will also be carried out before and after the tracking period.
A notable shortcoming of existing mobile phone research is that 'phone use' has almost exclusively been measured through subjective reports - by simply asking respondents how much time they spend on their mobile phones each day. This operational definition, however, is a major shortcoming as phone use is difficult to track - and is thus likely to be highly inaccurate. To address this gap, the investigators describe in this proposal a first step to characterize phone usage in an objective manner - by asking adolescents to download a phone-tracking app for a week. This circumvents measurement errors inherent to self-reports, and allows us to probe: (1) how accurate adolescents' estimates are of their own phone usage, and (2) whether objective phone usage predicts any cognitive, socio-emotional, or physical outcomes. The completion of this study will represent an important step forward in the development of empirically-driven guidelines on phone use amongst adolescents.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
1,000
Objective and subjective reports of smartphone use (e.g., number of hours, number of pick-ups, how phones are used)
Yale-NUS College
Singapore, Singapore
RECRUITINGDepression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS 21)
A 21-item, 4-point scale measuring participant emotional states. This is the short form of the longer 42-item DASS.
Time frame: 11 minutes (single measurement)
Body mass index
Participants' body mass index
Time frame: 1 minute (single measurement)
Sleep duration
Assessment of participants' sleep time \& wake time
Time frame: 2 minute (single measurement)
Digit Span Task
A digit span task carried out using a computer program
Time frame: 10 minutes (single measurement)
Psychomotor Vigilance Task
PVT carried out using a computer program
Time frame: 10 minutes (single measurement)
Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale (PDSS)
A 8-item, 5-point self-report scale to measure sleepiness during the day.
Time frame: 5 minutes (single measurement)
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
A questionnaire looking at a student's emotional and behavioural aspects in relation to coping with school.
Time frame: 10 minutes (single measurement)
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