Addictive Personality and Problematic Mobile Phone Use

TLDR

Mobile phone use is sometimes banned or regulated due to safety concerns, yet many people continue to use them, and problematic use can resemble addiction. The study aimed to identify personality predictors of problematic mobile phone use by examining correlations with traits from addiction literature. Researchers correlated problematic mobile phone use with addiction‑related personality traits, finding associations with gender, self‑monitoring, and approval motivation but not loneliness. These results suggest that measuring addictive personality traits could aid screening and intervention for problematic mobile phone users.

Abstract

Mobile phone use is banned or regulated in some circumstances. Despite recognized safety concerns and legal regulations, some people do not refrain from using mobile phones. Such problematic mobile phone use can be considered to be an addiction-like behavior. To find the potential predictors, we examined the correlation between problematic mobile phone use and personality traits reported in addiction literature, which indicated that problematic mobile phone use was a function of gender, self-monitoring, and approval motivation but not of loneliness. These findings suggest that the measurements of these addictive personality traits would be helpful in the screening and intervention of potential problematic users of mobile phones.