How effective is the online intervention 'Master your Smartphone' in preventing problematic smartphone use among students?

Abstract

Background: Although there is increasing evidence for the negative impact of problematic smartphone use on students’ academic achievements, there are hardly any intervention programs aiming at the prevention of problematic smartphone use among students. The online intervention ‘Master your smartphone’, developed by Utrecht University, aims to reduce problematic smartphone use and smartphone use that is interfering with academic tasks in university students. Method: A Clustered Randomized Trial was conducted to investigate if the online module is effective in reducing problematic smartphone use and smartphone use during academic tasks. Twelve classes of first-year university students (N = 248; M = 18.8, SD = 1.41) were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control condition. In the experimental condition, students followed the intervention module ‘Master your smartphone’, in the control condition students followed a general time management module. Data were collected at three time points, 1 month before the intervention (pre-test), during the intervention, and 3 months after the intervention (post-test). Results: The intervention was effective in decreasing symptoms of problematic smartphone use among students, but there was no evidence that the intervention limited smartphone use during academic tasks. Additional analyses indicated that the impact of the intervention on symptoms of problematic use was moderated by treatment integrity, i.e., students who scored higher on intervention responsiveness were more likely to benefit from the intervention than students who scored low. Conclusion: The online intervention ‘Master your smartphone’ seems an effective tool to prevent smartphone addiction symptoms in students.