Parenting, smartphone use and depression

Description

This cross-sectional study examined whether parenting status is associated with smartphone use patterns, smartphone deprivation, loneliness, and depressive symptoms in Hungarian adults. The study tested whether adults without children report higher perceived and actual smartphone use, problematic smartphone use, deprivation, and depression than parents, and whether smartphone-related processes help explain this association. It also explored whether non-parents are more likely to report hedonic rather than utilitarian smartphone use, while interpreting all indirect associations as non-causal explanatory pathways.

Steps to reproduce

To reproduce the study, recruit an adult sample and assess age, sex/gender, parenting status, partner-relationship status, perceived smartphone use, recorded daily smartphone-use hours, problematic smartphone use, smartphone deprivation, loneliness, depressive symptoms, and primary smartphone-use type. Compare parents and non-parents on smartphone-use and mental-health variables, and examine correlations between age, smartphone involvement, deprivation, loneliness, and depression. Then test whether parenting status predicts depressive symptoms after controlling for age, relationship status, perceived smartphone use, and daily hours of use. Finally, estimate a path model including parenting status, problematic smartphone use, smartphone deprivation, loneliness, and depressive symptoms, and test whether parenting status differs by hedonic versus utilitarian smartphone-use type.

Institutions

• Széchenyi István University

  Győr-Moson-Sopron, Győr

Categories

Licence