Developing and testing an application to assess the impact of smartphone usage on well-being and performance outcomes of student-athletes

Abstract

This paper outlines the development and testing of a novel mobile research application, which was specifically conceptualized and produced for sport psychology research assessing the prevalence and impact of student-athletes’ smartphone usage. Research examining athletes’ use of smartphones within and related to sport is scarce. As well, the research pertaining to smartphone usage in similar domains (i.e., physical activity and exercise), has relied heavily on retrospective, self-report data to determine smartphone usage prevalence. This study takes a step toward leveraging the smartphone as a sport psychology research tool, and toward recognizing the potential impact of smartphone usage in the sport domain. Sport psychology and computer science researchers collaborated to conceptualize, develop, and test a specialized mobile application that remotely tracks objective, detailed, smartphone usage, in real-time, via the personal smartphones of five (n = 5) student-athlete participants. The application also allows for efficient administration, completion, and storage of demographic and self-report surveys on key psychosocial, behavioral, and performance variables in student athletics. The results of this pilot study highlight preliminary smartphone usage trends of student-athletes and some key psychosocial variables related to their well-being. As well, the results underscore the capabilities of the research app to be used as a sport psychology assessment tool in an upcoming longitudinal prospective study with 500 varsity athletes.