The Identification of Influential Factors to Evaluate the Kids Smartphone Addiction: A Literature Review

Abstract

In this contemporary epoch of digitization, the smartphone is the key technological invention that influences the life of everyone. Among the users, kids are the emerging group as they have faced the ubiquity of such devices. Kids spend a considerable amount of time using smartphones at homes, schools, and public places, which leads to addiction. The relevant addiction and adverse effects have become a critical problem among adolescents. However, to our knowledge, there is no comprehensive study that investigates the cell phone usage pattern, multifaceted influencing factors, and negative consequences of a smartphone on kids. To address these issues, we conducted a two-fold exploratory study. We performed a systematic literature review to identify the influential factors and adverse effects related to kid's smartphone addiction. Subsequently, we presented a conceptual smartphone addiction model to highlight the significance of the influencing factors and their consequences. The results show that 1) parental usage, peer influence, watching videos, learning applications and playing games are critical factors that have a significant impact on smartphone addiction among kids. 2) withdrawal, silence, anxiety and depression are the main adverse effects of addiction. 3) the proposed conceptual addiction model enables the significance of factors and aids parents to mitigate the causes accordingly.