Problematic smartphone use severity, psychiatric symptoms, and behavioral addiction

Abstract

This article presents an empirical study carried out to evaluate and analyze the relationship between problematic smartphone use (PSU) severity, psychiatric symptoms, and behavioral addiction. Building our argument by drawing on data collected from ExactTarget, Pew Research Center, Screen Education, and YouGov, we performed analyses and made estimates regarding how PSU is associated with dysfunctional behaviors. Data collected from 5,100 respondents are tested against the research model by using structural equation modeling.