The Impact of Objectively Recorded Smartphone Usage and Emotional Intelligence on Problematic Internet Usage

This study examined the effects of gender, age, objective smartphone usage data, and Emotional Intelligence (EI) on Problematic Internet Use (PIU) and its components (obsession, neglect, and control disorder). The study relied on objective data of smartphone usage as a representative of technology use collected by a monitoring application of smartphone usage. PIU and EI were measured through the Problematic Internet Usage Questionnaire short form (PIUQ-SF-6) and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF), respectively. The current cross-sectional study was carried out with 268 participants (Female: 61.6%, ages from 15 to 64) from ten different countries. The analysis was performed using multiple linear regression. The results of the multiple regression models showed that gender and age did not reveal a significant influence on PIU or its components. Smartphone usage had a positive and significant effect on PIU, while EI inversely and significantly affected PIU and accounted for 24.6% of PIU total variance. Similarly, smartphone usage and EI significantly affected the PIU components, accounting for 15.9% of obsession variance, 12.9% of neglect variance, and 16.4% of control disorder variance. Our findings contribute to the literature by objectively evaluating the influence of time spent using the internet on PIU. It is one of the first studies to rely on objectively measured smartphone usage data and compare findings to previous studies that relied on self-reported data. When used to regulate usage, the monitoring applications of smartphone usage should be better contextualized to reflect users’ psychometrics.