Layne, Matthew D.Gansner, MeredithSingh, Rasika2023-02-282022https://hdl.handle.net/2144/45683BACKGROUND: With the ubiquity of digital media and smartphone use in the lives of adolescents and young adults, it is critical to determine the effects that excessive amounts of internet use may have on this mentally developing population. Problematic internet use (PIU) is defined as excessive or uncontrolled internet use and is often associated with psychiatric impairment or distress. With adolescents who suffer from PIU likening the experience to common psychiatric disorders such as substance use or gambling disorders, researchers are exploring characteristics that PIU may have in common with these existing psychiatric disorders such as impulsivity, anxiety, and depression. This study uses novel smartphone app-based ecological momentary assessment to assess whether there is an association between in-the-moment reports of PIU and impulsivity in adolescents and young adults, and secondarily to examine the relationships between PIU and psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, as these are factors associated with impulsivity. We hypothesize that the adolescents and young adults in our study population will have a significant relationship between daily PIU-SF-6 and BIS-BRIEF scores, suggesting a temporal relationship between severity of PIU and impulsivity. As PIU habits have also been suggested to develop as a way to manage uncomfortable affective symptoms, we hypothesize that the adolescents and young adults in our study population will also have significant relationships between PIU-SF-6 scores and both PHQ-8 and GAD-7 scores. Contrasting with prior methodologies used in PIU studies, ecological momentary assessment allows for an increased ability to capture rapid shifts in mood and behavior states in a teenager’s home environment. If adolescents and young adults are reporting higher impulsivity in the same moments where they are reporting higher levels of PIU, it may, in part, explain how device separation leads to such psychiatric crises. METHODS: This study enrolled 30 participants aged 13-22 who received outpatient mental health care at a community hospital within the greater Boston area and have access to Wi-Fi. Participants utilized the mental health phone application mindLAMP for 6 weeks to answer surveys assessing daily problematic internet use and weekly depression and anxiety. RESULTS: Individual daily PIU-SF-6 and BIS-BRIEF scores for each participant were assessed to determine if there were associations between in-the-moment PIU severity and impulsivity measurements. A significant relationship was observed between BIS-BRIEF and PIU-SF-6 scores (p = 0.00). Age, gender, psychiatric diagnosis, mean GAD-7 and PHQ-8 scores were also compared to mean PIU-SF-scores to identify potential relationships between these variables and PIU, but no significant relationships were observed. CONCLUSION: The findings from this study suggest that strong associations between PIU severity and impulsivity may exist, supporting the expected primary hypothesis and suggesting comorbidity between the two variables. Results also suggest that there are no significant associations between PIU severity and psychiatric symptoms such as anxiety and depression, contradicting the expected secondary hypothesis. However, issues posed by sample size, participant adherence, and subjectivity of impulsivity measurements should be considered when drawing conclusions from the data analyses. Future research should aim to increase sample size and adherence, and consider objective measurements so that collected data may be used more effectively.en-USBehavioral psychologyAdolescent psychiatryDigital mediaDigital phenotypingEcological momentary assessmentImpulsivityProblematic internet useThesis/Dissertation2023-02-21