Attachment to Smartphones: An Alternative Framework for Understanding Adolescent Smartphone Use

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

Evaluating the addictive features of smartphones has been a recent focus of research (e.g., problematic smartphone use), and has been linked with social and occupational functional impairment (reviewed in Gutierrez, Rubio, & De Fonseca). However, many have voiced concern around the application of the medical-addiction model to such a novel, quasi-normalized, and potentially functional dependence on smartphones, and questioned whether these experiences are best understood as addictive behaviours (e.g., Billieux, Schimmenti, Khazaal, Maurage, & Heeren, 2015; Ellis, 2019; Panova & Carbonell, 2018; Park, 2019). The objective of this paper is to explore an alternative framework, with well-understood biological underpinnings, for understanding adolescents’ relationships with their smartphones. That is, instead of exploring these relationships through the lens of addiction, this paper uses an attachment theory framework to elucidate adolescents’ experiences of what has typically been conceptualized as ‘problematic smartphone use’.


Though attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) was originally used to conceptualize bonds that develop between children and their primary caregivers, it has also proven useful in understanding other important relationships, including those between humans and objects (Cipriani & Kreider, 2009). In line with human attachment figures, an attachment object represents a source of comfort, and becomes an attachment target through learned association (Bretheton,1985; Passman, 1987). Ainsworth (1985) described four key features that reappear in attachment relationships, which can be applied to adolescents’ relationships with their smartphones. First, an attachment bond is marked by proximity maintenance (i.e., the tendency for an individual to remain in close contact with the attachment target). Second, an attachment target is used as a safe haven for safety, protection, and support, during times of threat or weakness. Third, an attachment target is relied on as a secure base for exploration, such that the presence of the attachment target promotes feelings of security and confidence. Fourth, individuals experience separation anxiety upon parting with the attachment target. In terms of adolescents’ relationships with their smartphones, these features are reflected in their constant connectivity to their device (Anderson & Jiang, 2018), their use of their device as a source of safety (e.g., smartphone engagement to reduce feelings of anxiety; Smetaniuk, 2014), as a secure base for exploration (e.g., feeling more confident to enter novel situations in the presence of their smartphone), and through their experience of separation anxiety upon being separated from their device (Forgays, Hyman, & Schreiber, 2014).

Thus, from an attachment perspective, some of the alarming behaviours that emerge alongside increasing smartphone use (often considered addictive features) may actually be the result of an adaptive strategy to maintain a sense of security and inhibit the activation of the attachment system in response to feelings of insecurity or emotional distress. This may be particularly true for those with pervasive concerns about the availability of close others (i.e., those high in attachment anxiety). In this way, the application of an attachment theory framework to understanding adolescents’ relationships with their smartphones could have important implications for the development of intervention and prevention efforts targeting maladaptive patterns of adolescent use.

Authors

• Natasha Parent, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer D Shapka, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)
  Non-Presenting Author