Understanding the smartphone generation: is problematic smartphone use associated with low body esteem among adolescent girls and boys?

Abstract

Contemporary adolescents increasingly engage with social media via their smartphones, and problematic smartphone use has been identified as a growing concern. The aim of the current study was to examine the association between problematic smartphone use and body esteem among adolescent boys and girls. A sample of 647 adolescents (mean age: 14.15 years; 56.7% females) completed measures of problematic smartphone use, emotional regulation, and body esteem. Findings from hierarchical regression models revealed that problematic smartphone use was weakly associated with body esteem among both adolescent girls and boys. Furthermore, difficulties with emotional regulation were moderately associated with problematic smartphone use and, among girls, moderated the relationship between problematic smartphone use and the evaluation attributed to others about one’s own body, such that problematic smartphone use was more tightly associated with appearance attributions among girls with greater emotion regulation difficulties. This study provides initial support for the relationships between problematic smartphone use and emotional regulation difficulties on the one hand, and body esteem on the other, among both adolescent boys and girls.