Problematic smartphone usage, emotion regulation, and social and non-social smartphone use

Problematic smartphone use (PSU), an addictive-like behavior characterized by excessive smartphone use related to negative daily-life outcomes, is associated with affect-related complications. Expressive suppression as an emotion regulation strategy predicts more smartphone use; in addition, PSU is associated with both social and non-social features of smartphone usage. However, it has not been investigated if different emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal/expressive suppression) are related to distinct types of smartphone use (for social/non-social purposes). Furthermore, it has not been studied if the relationships between emotion regulation strategies and PSU are mediated by these types of smartphone use. The aim of this study was to understand how emotion regulation strategies are related to PSU and types of smartphone use, and if social or non-social features mediate these relationships. Participants were 300 undergraduate students (76% female) from a Midwestern American university aged 18-38 (M = 19.45, SD = 2.17). They completed the Smartphone Addiction Scale, Social/Process Use Scale, and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The bivariate correlation analyses showed that cognitive reappraisal was correlated to both social and non-social smartphone use but not PSU. Expressive suppression was correlated to PSU and non-social smartphone use, but not with social smartphone use. Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that non-social smartphone use mediated the relationship between expressive suppression and PSU. There were no statistically significant indirect effects for social/non-social smartphone use between PSU and cognitive reappraisal. It could be that people with more maladaptive, suppressive emotion regulation use more non-social features of smartphones, resulting in having higher levels of PSU.