Resisting problematic smartphone use: Distracter resistance strengthens grit's protective effect against problematic smartphone use

• Main Authors: KHOO, Shi Ann Shuna, YANG, Hwajin
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2022
• Subjects: Grit; Resistance to distracter interference; Response inhibition; Smartphone use; Applied Behavior Analysis; Social Psychology
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3756; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5014/viewcontent/Resisting_problematic_smartphone_use_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Recent studies suggest that grit serves as a protective trait against maladaptive smartphone use. However, little is known about possible boundary conditions, such as cognitive abilities, that could modulate the relations. Evidence suggests that the cognitive functions that underlie goal-maintenance abilities—specifically, inhibition—could moderate the relations of the two subfactors of grit (i.e., grit-consistency and grit-perseverance) with problematic smartphone use. Hence, we investigated the moderating roles of two core aspects of inhibition: prepotent response inhibition and resistance to distracter interference. Testing college students (N = 237, Mage = 21.8 years, 73.4% female), we found that only resistance to distracter interference, but not prepotent response inhibition, significantly moderated the link between grit-perseverance and problematic smartphone use. However, neither facet of inhibition moderated the associations between grit-consistency and problematic smartphone use. These results underscore the importance of cognitive inhibition for resisting task-irrelevant distracters and strengthening the protective role of grit-perseverance against problematic smartphone use.