The Relationship Between Smartphone Addiction, Mindfulness and Impulsivity

Objectives: To comparatively analyze mindfulness between young adults with smartphone addiction and healthy smartphone users and to explore whether mindfulness could affect smartphone addiction and whether impulsivity could mediate their association. Methods: Forty young adults with smartphone addiction (17 male, 23 female; mean age: 26.8±6.7 years) and 44 healthy smartphone users (21 male, 23 female; mean age: 27.8±5.1 years) were included in this study. Mindfulness was evaluated through the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF). Subjects were also evaluated for impulsivity via the self-reported Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS). Relationships of smartphone addiction with mindfulness and impulsivity were analyzed using linear regression through mediation. Results: Subjects with smartphone addiction had a lower level of mindfulness and but higher impulsivity than healthy users. The awareness subscale of FFMQ-SF had a significant effect on smartphone addiction scale. The attentional impulsiveness subscale of BIS showed a significant mediating effect. Conclusion: Smartphone addicts showed a low level of mindfulness. In particular, low awareness had a significant effect on smartphone addiction through mediation of high attentional impulsiveness. This finding suggests that mindfulness-based interventions might enhance executive control over their excessive smartphone use.