Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Jun 9, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 9, 2021 - Aug 4, 2021
Date Accepted: Dec 22, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Exploring Deeper Causes Linking Adolescents’ Mental Disorder to Mobile Phone Usage Problems: A Grounded Theory Approach
ABSTRACT
Background:
Evidence from a variety of studies links mobile phone usage (MPU) with the increase in mental health problems, with the situation being particularly prevalent in China and exacerbated by the COVID-19 quarantine.
Objective:
To reveal underlying connections between MPU and mental disorders of adolescents and develop a theory to help parents and counseling psychologists better understand and intervene in future cases.
Methods:
37 teenagers having both mental health and MPU problems, along with their parents were included for individual interviews. These interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using qualitative methods of grounded theory (GT).
Results:
Grades-ranking-only judgment is one of the main factors causing problems such as defective family bonding and peer influences, pushing teenagers with mental disorders to seek comfort in the virtual world through their cellphones.
Conclusions:
This theory is not only inspiring for psychological counseling and therapy on adolescents with mental problems, but it is also beneficial for school educators and parents to better understand the adolescents. Findings of the study are also particularly noteworthy during the current period when parents whose works are substantially affected by the pandemic should try to build a relaxing and cozy atmosphere at home to avoid possible conflict outbreaks.
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.