The chain-mediating role of perceived stress and problematic smartphone use in the link between critical thinking and academic engagement among Spanish adolescents

Abstract

Because problematic smartphone use (PSU) is rising among adolescents, it is vital to analyze the potential causes and psychosocial consequences affecting this target population. Current theoretical frameworks suggest that specific personal core characteristics might predispose individuals to experience increases in this problematic behavior over time. Additionally, PSU has been conceptualized as a maladaptive coping mechanism to manage negative emotions. The present study aimed at analyzing a personal resource, critical thinking disposition, and a potential negative consequence, reduced academic engagement, and the underlying role of perceived stress and PSU in this association among Spanish adolescents. The sample consisted of 688 adolescents (54% females, 46% males) aged 12 to 18 years from Southern Spain. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess critical thinking disposition (VIA-Youth), perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale), PSU (Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version), and academic engagement (Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Students). We analyzed a serial mediation model using PROCESS (SPSS), in which critical thinking disposition was the independent variable, perceived stress and PSU were the first and second mediators, respectively, and academic engagement was the outcome variable. Our results indicated that lower critical thinking disposition was linked to increased perceived stress, which was associated with higher PSU, resulting in decreased academic engagement. These findings provide empirical support for the pathways model of PSU, the maladaptive coping theories, and the I-PACE model of behavioral addictions. Furthermore, we discuss our results highlighting the important implication of training adolescents to think critically regarding their smartphone usage to reduce their stress levels, to avoid using smartphones as a coping strategy, and hence, to improve their student's attitudes toward school.

Depressive symptomatology is associated with problematic smartphone use severity in adolescents: The mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies

“…Our results suggest that specifically challenging the use of strategies such as other-blame, catastrophizing, and rumination, while teaching about refocusing on planning, could be a promising approach to preventing and treating PSU severity in adolescents. Finally, concerning theoretical implications, our study provides partial evidence to support the I-PACE model, contributing to prior research that has used this approach (e.g., Arrivillaga et al, 2022a;Hallauer et al, 2022;Servidio et al, 2022). In other words, when depressive symptomatology acts as a predisposing variable the use of specific cognitive emotion regulation strategies take the form of affective and cognitive mechanisms that underlie the association with PSU severity in adolescents.…”

“…In this study, we focused on variables related to the P, A, and C components because research suggests that these mechanisms have been most widely studied in relation to PSU (Busch & McCarthy, 2021), although not necessarily within the I-PACE framework. Therefore, our study aimed at providing much-needed empirical evidence regarding particular factors and processes within this contemporary internet-related specific theoretical model (Elhai et al, 2019a;Wegmann & Brand, 2021), as previous studies have done (e.g., Arrivillaga et al, 2022a;Hallauer et al, 2022;Servidio et al, 2022).…”