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Category: Project

Description: Mobile connectivity is a ubiquitous part of adolescents’ lives. Adolescents must navigate the benefits and drawbacks of connectivity to maintain digital well-being. Research on adolescents’ digital well-being is scarce although adolescents are believed to be highly susceptible to media effects. Previous research has mostly correlated screen time with adolescents’ social, cognitive, and emotional well-being outcomes, while overlooking adolescents’ subjective experiences of smartphone use. The present research filled this gap by developing and validating the Perceived Digital Well-Being in Adolescence Scale (PDBWA). This semantic differential scale was developed by conducting a literature review and five cognitive interviews with adolescents and then tested in two cross-sectional studies. A total of 161 adolescents participated in Study 1 (Mage = 17.87, SDage = 1.23), and 1,040 adolescents (Mage = 15.28, SDage = 1.79) participated in Study 2. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated a stable three-factor model consisting of perceived digital balance subscales in the social, cognitive, and emotional domains. Construct validity tests were performed and metric invariance across sex was established. The descriptive results showed that adolescents’ perceived digital well-being differed according to gender, age, and educational track. We discuss the scale’s theoretical and practical relevance and formulate suggestions for future research.