Problematic smartphone use and sleep disturbance: the roles of metacognitions, desire thinking, and emotion regulation

Abstract

BackgroundThe association between problematic Smartphone use (PSU) and sleep disturbance is evidenced in the literature, but more research is required to investigate the potential factors that may influence the effect of PSU on sleep disturbance. Given the considerable prevalence of PSU (9.3 to 36.7%) and sleep disturbance (55.2%) in Iran, the current study sought to examine an interactional model to test whether metacognitions about Smartphone use, desire thinking (verbal perseveration and imaginal prefiguration), and emotion regulation (expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal) could have a moderating effect on the above-mentioned association.MethodThis present study is a cross-sectional, observational study that was conducted between June and September 2022 in a convenience sample of Iranians (n = 603, Female = 419, Age = 24.61 ± 8).ResultsDespite the significant association between metacognitions about the Smartphone use, PSU, and sleep disturbance, metacognitions failed to predict sleep disturbance above PSU. A slope analysis showed, however, that a high (not low or moderate) levels of imaginal prefiguration strengthen the association between PSU and sleep disturbance, while a high (not low or moderate) level of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression dampen the PSU-sleep disturbance association. We also found that verbal perseveration and expressive suppression were unique predictors of sleep disturbance, while imaginal prefiguration and reappraisal only predicted sleep disturbance if they interacted with PSU.ConclusionTheoretically, findings suggest that enhancing cognitive reappraisal (by 1 SD) and reducing imaginal prefiguration (by 1 SD), might protect against sleep disturbance by reducing its association with PSU. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

A systematic review of the relationship between generic and specific metacognitive beliefs and emotion dysregulation: A metacognitive model of emotion dysregulation

“…(c) a higher endorsement of negative beliefs about thoughts concerning uncontrollability and danger is significantly associated with low use of cognitive reappraisal (r = À0.29) and higher expressive suppression (r = 0.31) (Akbari et al, 2021); (d) a higher endorsement of negative metacognitive beliefs about smartphone use is significantly associated with low use of cognitive reappraisal (r = À0.10) but not with expressive suppression (Akbari et al, 2023); (e) rumination mediates the association between metacognitive beliefs (i.e., negative beliefs about thoughts concerning uncontrollability and danger) and emotion dysregulation; (f) worry does not mediate the association between positive/negative metacognitive beliefs about cognitiveaffective self-regulatory strategies and emotion dysregulation (Mansueto et al, 2022).…”

“…All selected studies had a cross-sectional design. Six studies were conducted in Italy (Casale et al, 2016;Laghi et al, 2018;Mansueto et al, 2022;Palmieri et al, 2023b;Rogier et al, 2022;Spada & Marino, 2017), six studies in Iran (Akbari, 2017;Akbari et al, 2021Akbari et al, , 2023Mazloom et al, 2016;Mohammadkhani et al, 2020;Poormahdy et al, 2022), one study in United Kingdom (Manser et al, 2012), one study in Poland (Dragan, 2015), one in the United States of America (Leahy et al, 2019), one study in Spain (Salguero et al, 2019), one study in Lebanon (Azzi et al, 2022) and one study in Canada (Deleurme et al, 2022).…”

“…Nine studies were run on non-clinical samples (i.e., university students and general population) (Akbari, 2017, Akbari et al, 2021Akbari et al, 2023;Casale et al, 2016;Deleurme et al, 2022;Manser et al, 2012;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 1;Rogier et al, 2022;Salguero et al, 2019), seven studies on clinical samples (i.e., patients under psychotherapy, outpatients seeking psychological treatment, outpatients with eating disorders, participants with nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence inpatients and drinkers) (Azzi et al, 2022;Dragan, 2015;Leahy et al, 2019;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 2;Ottonello et al, 2019;Palmieri et al, 2023b;Poormahdy et al, 2022), and four studies were run on adolescent samples (Laghi et al, 2018;Mazloom et al, 2016;Mohammadkhani et al, 2020;Spada & Marino, 2017).…”

“…Questionnaire Short Form-30 (Wells & Cartwright-Hatton, 2004) in 12 studies (Akbari, 2017;Akbari et al, 2021;Deleurme et al, 2022;Laghi et al, 2018;Leahy et al, 2019;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 1;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 2;Mazloom et al, 2016;Mohammadkhani et al, 2020;Palmieri et al, 2023b;Salguero et al, 2019;Spada & Marino, 2017), with the Positive Alcohol Metacognitions Scale (Spada et al, 2008) and the Negative Alcohol Metacognitions scale (Spada et al, 2008) in three studies (Azzi et al, 2022;Dragan, 2015;Ottonello et al, 2019), with the Metacognitions about Smoking Questionnaire (Nikčevi c et al, 2015) in one study (Poormahdy et al, 2022), with the Metacognitions about Smartphone Use Questionnaire in one study (Akbari et al, 2023) with the Distraction Scale of the Online Cognition Scale (Davis et al, 2002) and the Schouten's scale (Schouten et al, 2007) in one study (Casale et al, 2016), with the Beliefs about Emotions Questionnaire (Manser et al, 2012) in one study (Manser et al, 2012), and with the Emotion Beliefs Questionnaire (Becerra et al, 2020) in one study (Rogier et al, 2022). Emotion dysregulation was measured with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004) in eleven studies (Akbari, 2017;Casale et al, 2016;Dragan, 2015;Laghi et al, 2018;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 1;Mansueto et al, 2022, study 2;…”

“…II. A higher endorsement of unhelpful metacognitive beliefs (i.e., generic metacognitive beliefs about cognitive and/or affective experiences and metacognitive beliefs about cognitiveaffective self-regulatory strategies) may be associated with the use of maladaptive forms of mental control (i.e., low use of cognitive reappraisal, higher levels of expressive suppression and higher levels of repetitive negative thinking), which in turn (a) may strengthen dysfunctional metacognitive beliefs resulting in a possible vicious cycle (Akbari et al, 2023;Azzi et al, 2022;Mansueto et al, 2022;Palmieri et al, 2023b) and (b) may hinder the process of emotional regulation (Balzarotti et al, 2010;Gross, 1998;Gross, 2001;Mansueto et al, 2022;Palmieri et al, 2023b;Sheppes et al, 2015). These findings are consistent with the S-REF model (Wells, 2009;Wells & Matthews, 1994, 1996 according to which metacognitive beliefs may be related with the use of maladaptive forms of mental control, that is, cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS), which may reduce the capacity for effective self-regulation, intensifying and prolonging negative emotions (Capobianco & Nordahl, 2021;Wells, 2009;Wells & Matthews, 1994, 1996.…”