JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Concerns abound regarding childhood smartphone use, but studies to date largely relied on self-reported digital behaviors. Self-reporting of screen use is known to be mis-reported by pediatric samples and their parents, limiting accurate determination of the impact of screen use on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Thus, more objective, passive measurement of smartphone use in children is needed.

Objective:

Passively sense smartphone usage, by time used and types of apps used, in a pilot sample of children. Assess feasibility of passive sensing in a larger, longitudinal sample.

Methods:

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD Study®) used passive, objective, phone-app methods for smartphone usage over 4 weeks in 2019-2020 in a subsample of 67 participants (ages 11-12 years; 46% female; 34% White). Children and their parents both reported average smartphone usage before and after the study period, and completed a questionnaire regarding acceptability of the study protocol. Descriptive statistics for smartphone, app usage, and protocol feasibility and acceptability were reviewed. ANOVAs were run to assess differences in categorical app use by demographics. Self- and parent report was correlated with passive sensing data.

Results:

Self-report of smartphone usage was partly consistent with objective measurement (r = .49), though objective data indicated children used their phones more than they reported. Passive sensing revealed the most common types of apps used were for streaming (mean = 1 hour 57 minutes per day), communication (mean = 48 minutes per day), gaming (mean = 41 minutes per day), and social media (mean = 36 minutes per day). Passive assessment of smartphone use was generally acceptable to children (67%) and parents (85%).

Conclusions:

Objective sensing results suggest children use their phones more than they self-report. Therefore, use of more robust methods for objective data collection is necessary and feasible in samples of children. These data may then more accurately reflect the impact of smartphone use on behavioral and emotional functioning. Accordingly, the ABCD Study is implementing a passive sensing protocol in the full ABCD cohort. Taken together, passive assessment with a phone app provided objective, low-burden, novel, informative data about pre-teen smartphone usage.