Study Smart! Effectiveness of a Smartphone Use Intervention on Students' Performance and Well-being

Summary

Smartphone use in academic contexts (e.g., in lectures or while studying for an exam) appears to go along with negative effects on students' academic performance (i.e., concentration, perceived learning achievement, and grades) and well-being (e.g., anxiety, positive and negative affect). Despite these alarming effects, intervention studies aiming at reducing smartphone interference are generally scarce and evidential inconsistent. For instance, existing studies suggest that short separation phases from smartphones accelerate anxiety and lead to cravings and smartphone overuse after the separation period. Other studies, however, conclude that separation phases enhance individual well-being and academic performance.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS. The present study aims at rigorously studying the effects of smartphone separation during exam phases on university students' performance and well-being. To do so, smartphone use reduction is incorporated into students' everyday life and encouraged through a planning intervention. The main research questions concern whether the intervention can reduce smartphone use in students, whether planning is effective in this regard, whether the intervention positively affects students' academic performance (e.g., concentration, perceived performance, grades), and whether the intervention enhances students' well-being (e.g., increased positive and decreased negative affect, lower anxiety). Furthermore, possible moderating (e.g., smartphone dependence, FoMO) and mediating variables (e.g., exam preparation-related flow, smartphone usage time, used mobile applications) are examined.

METHOD. Students are to develop action plans (BCT 1.4; plans on how to reduce smartphone use during exam phases) and coping plans (BCT 1.2; plans on how to uphold reduced smartphone use during exam phases despite potential stressors or urges). The relevant variables are assessed over the course of 5 measurement points (t1-t3 take place on a weekly basis, t4 takes place after the last exam, t5 takes place 2 months after t4). Furthermore, smartphone use (smartphone use time, used mobile applications) is objectively measured via a mobile application.

Conditions

• Experimental Group: Smartphone Use Reduction
• Control Group

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Smartphone Use Reduction in Academic Context

Students will be given general advice on how to organize their exam preparation environment and behavior to improve their overall learning performance (e.g., organization of materials for exam preparation, pauses during exam preparation). This refers to the behavior change techniques (BCT 4.1, instructions on how to perform the behavior; Michie et al.; 2013). In the next step, participants in the intervention group complete planning sheets. Each student has to develop up to three action plans (BCT 1.4) including when, where, and for how long the smartphone will be put away during the daily exam preparation period (cf. Radtke et al., 2018). In addition, each participant should try to anticipate possible barriers to engaging in the planned behavior and plan what he or she could do to overcome these possible barriers (i.e., coping planning; BCT 1.2; Michie et al., 2013).

BEHAVIORAL

Control

Students will be given general advice on how to organize their exam preparation environment and behavior to improve their overall learning performance (e.g., organization of materials for exam preparation, pauses during exam preparation).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Witten/Herdecke

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Theda Radtke · Witten/Herdecke University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-01-13

Primary Completion

2021-10-31

Completion

2021-10-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations