The Relationship between Smartphone Overdependence and the Adolescents’ Smartphone Use Time during Tasks: Moderating Effects of Purposeful Use for Tasks

Purpose: This study aims to examine and understand how the use of smartphones for the task affects exces-sive dependence on smartphones in adolescence. In particular, it seeks to verify the moderating effect of the pro-portion of the purposeful use for the task. It is to confirm the effect of smartphone using time during one s task on smartphone overdependence. In particular, it has been confirmed whether the proportion used to carry out the task affects the excessive dependency on smartphones by smartphone using time. Method: The data from the survey on smartphone overdependence by the National Information Society Agency in 2018 was used, and a three-step hierarchical regression analysis was performed on middle and high school students. The dependent variable was the level of smartphone overdependence, the independent variable was the time spent on using the smartphone during the task, and the moderating variable was the proportion of purposeful use for the task. Results: It was found that the longer the time of using smartphones during the task, the higher the level of smartphone overdependence, yet the proportion of purpose of use did not have a significant relationship with smartphone-related overdependence. Furthermore, the proportion of targeted use of the task has changed the nature of the relationship between smartphone usage time during the task and the level of excessive smartphone dependence. When the smartphone use time during the task is short, the proportion of the smartphone use for the task lowered the overdependence, but the proportion of smartphone use for their task did not affect smartphone overdependence when the smartphone use time during the task was long. Conclusion: The time spent on using smartphones during the task increased the level of smartphone overdependence, and the level of overdependence was changed by the proportion of purposeful use for the task. This means that even if adolescents use a smartphone for tasks such as studies, it is important to create an environment that can help manage on their own to ensure that they can use their smartphones for their intended purpose, along with the efforts to shorten the time of use of a smartphone.