Problematic Internet and mobile phone use in adolescents in Barcelona and London

Resumen

This thesis focuses on the development and adaptation of psychometric scales to evaluate the problematic use of Internet and the mobile phone in adolescents in Barcelona and London. It aims to describe the characteristics and patterns of this use, to categorize problematic users of either technology and to test category validity by developing the Problematic Internet Entertainment Use Scale for Adolescents and adapting the Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale for Adolescents (hereafter, PIEUSA and MPPUSA, respectively). It also proposes a statistical model to obtain predictive factors and estimates the prevalence of problematic users of both technologies so as to more effectively describe their psychological and social profile and examine the addictive nature of their use. The thesis takes the findings of five selective studies using convenience samples of more than 1000 secondary school students in Barcelona and a similar sample size in London, who completed questionnaires. Although the study methods were mainly quantitative and used statistical analysis, one study adopted a mixed methods approach. The results allowed the researchers to validate the scales, which demonstrated excellent internal consistency and adequate factorial and construct validity, inasmuch as both scales were unidimensional. The participants were categorized and the prevalence of problematic users was estimated. The cut-off points were satisfactorily tested for sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy, and the results demonstrated the presence of addictive behaviour in users of both technologies, where user profiles were also defined according to characteristics, patterns of use and addictive symptomatology. In conclusion, the thesis examined the border area between non-problematic and problematic Internet and mobile phone adolescent use, which international institutions like the American Psychiatric Association may begin to classify as mental disorders if the scientific and clinical evidence supports this.