Prevention of problematic smartphone use among adolescents: A preliminary study to investigate the efficacy of an intervention based on the metacognitive model

As there is a significant gap in the development of preventive interventions tailored to adolescents, this study develops and preliminarily investigates the efficacy of a preventive intervention towards Problematic Smartphone Use (PSU) by referring to the metacognitive model. Six classes, a total of 93 high school students (75 % females, Mage = 16.26, SD = 1.24), were randomly assigned to either the Training or No Training group. The intervention spanned five weekly sessions, incorporating cognitive behavioral therapy and the conceptual change model to modify metacognitive beliefs. Pre- and post-test measures included daily time spent on the mobile phone, risky behaviors related to smartphone use, and metacognitive beliefs about smartphone use. A mixed ANOVA indicated a significant reduction in daily time spent on the mobile phone and risky behaviors related to smartphone use only in the Training group, with large effect sizes. Findings are promising and discussed in terms of future improvement.