Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
17th International Congress on Psychopharmacology & Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology / Psychotherapy, Antalya, Türkiye, 15 - 18 Nisan 2026, ss.0-1, (Özet Bildiri)
Burak Okumuş1, Makbule Esen Öksüzoğlu2
2Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Kastamonu University, Kastamonu / Türkiye
Background and Objective: Smartphones are central to young adults’ daily communication, academic work, and social interaction; however, frequent checking and persistent mental preoccupation may disrupt sustained attention. “Smartphone-distraction” can be conceptualized as difficulty maintaining task focus due to repeated attentional shifts and cognitive intrusions. Beyond the duration of use, individual psychological processes may contribute to this pattern. This study examined the incremental contributions of emotion regulation difficulties, pleasure dimensions, and ADHD-related symptoms to smartphone-related distraction after controlling for sociodemographic and clinical factors. We also explored whether observed gender differences would remain significant after accounting for these psychological variables.
Methods: A cross-sectional, online survey was conducted among university students at Uşak University between March and June 2025. Participants were recruited via official departmental social media groups and completed self-report measures through Google Forms. The final sample comprised 316 students aged 18–30 who provided informed consent. Ethics approval was obtained from the Usak University Non-Interventional Clinical Research Ethics Committee (decision no:590-590-03). Smartphone distraction was assessed with the Smartphone Distraction Scale(SDS). Emotion regulation difficulties were measured with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale(DERS); hedonic functioning with the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale(TEPS;anticipatory and consummatory subscales); and ADHD symptoms with the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS;inattentive and hyperactivity/impulsivity subscales). Hierarchical multiple regression tested predictors of SDS scores in four steps: (1)age and gender; (2)income and employment; (3)regular smoking and alcohol use; and (4)DERS, TEPS subscales, and ASRS subscales.
Results: Women reported higher SDS and DERS scores than men, and higher TEPS anticipatory and consummatory scores; ASRS scores did not differ by gender. In regression analyses, age and gender explained 1.7% of the variance in SDS (R²=.017; model p=.070), with gender emerging as a significant predictor at this step. Adding income and employment did not significantly improve the model (ΔR²=.007; p=.335), nor did adding smoking and alcohol use (ΔR²=.012; p=.139). The addition of psychological variables produced a substantial and significant increase in explained variance (ΔR²=.303; p<.001), yielding a final model explaining 33.9% of SDS variance (R²=.339). In the final model, higher DERS, higher TEPS anticipatory pleasure, and higher ASRS inattentive symptoms were independently associated with higher smartphone-related distraction. In contrast, TEPS consummatory pleasure and ASRS hyperactivity/impulsivity were not significant predictors. Notably, the effect of gender became non-significant after psychological variables were included, suggesting that initial gender differences were largely accounted for by underlying emotion regulation, reward expectancy, and inattentive symptom dimensions.
Conclusions: This study indicates that, among university students, smartphone-related distractibility can be accounted for only to a limited extent after controlling for sociodemographic variables; by contrast, the phenomenon appears to be meaningfully linked to underlying psychological processes. In the fully adjusted model, difficulties in emotion regulation, elevated anticipatory pleasure, and symptoms reflecting the inattentive dimension of ADHD independently predicted smartphone-related distractibility. In contrast, consummatory pleasure and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms did not provide additional, specific explanatory value. Accordingly, preventive and intervention programs for university populations should prioritize strengthening emotion regulation skills, managing impulsive reward-seeking tendencies related to reward anticipation, and supporting sustained attentional control.
Keywords: Anticipatory pleasure, Emotion regulation difficulties, Inattentive symptoms, Smartphone distraction, University students