Are smartphones addictive? Examining the cognitive-behavior model of motivation, leisure boredom, extended self, and fear of missing out on possible smartphone addiction

Smartphone addiction has emerged as a social problem and has received considerable academic attention. Despite accumulating discussion, only a small number of studies have applied the cognitive-behavior model of addiction (Davis, 2001) as a theoretical basis to examine the underlying mechanisms of smartphone addiction. According to CBM explanations, pre-existing psychosocial problems along with cognitive factors lead to smartphone addiction. A few recent studies have examined the roles of distal factors (i.e., psychosocial variables) on smartphone addiction. However, these studies did not consider the proximal cause (i.e., cognitive variable), which is the sufficient factor contributing to addiction. Therefore, this study addresses this gap in the literature by applying CBM to uncover both the distal (leisure boredom and fear of missing out) and proximal causes (extended self) of smartphone addiction. 777 young adults aged 18–35 years were surveyed in this study. Results and implications were discussed.