Article
Version 1
Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Evaluation of a Brief Intervention to Reduce Cell Phone Use
Version 1
: Received: 11 January 2020 / Approved: 12 January 2020 / Online: 12 January 2020 (18:15:25 CET)
How to cite: Piper, B.J.; Daily, S.M.; Martin, S.L.; Martin, M.W. Evaluation of a Brief Intervention to Reduce Cell Phone Use. Preprints 2020, 2020010137 (doi: 10.20944/preprints202001.0137.v1). Piper, B.J.; Daily, S.M.; Martin, S.L.; Martin, M.W. Evaluation of a Brief Intervention to Reduce Cell Phone Use. Preprints 2020, 2020010137 (doi: 10.20944/preprints202001.0137.v1).
Abstract
Excessive cell phone use contributes to distracted driving, may increase risk for automobile accidents, and a minority of mobile phone users exhibit behaviors consistent with technological addiction. The purpose of this study was to determine whether cell phone beliefs and behaviors could be changed by a brief educational encounter. The Theory of Reasoned Action provided a lens for viewing attitudes and behavior. A one-week pre-post design with a thirty-day follow-up was used with participants (N = 215, 67.0% female, age = 20.0 + 1.6) assigned to a peer led intervention or comparison groups. The intervention included cell-phone educational materials. A short index of cell phone behavior was developed which showed good internal consistency with a Cronbach’s alpha of .81. The intervention group “agreed” or “strongly-agreed” more than the comparison group on five of the seven areas of cell phone beliefs and behaviors ( p < 0.05, item Cohen’s d = .32 to .47, total d = .50) at one-week following receipt of informational materials. We conclude that attitudes and behaviors regarding cell phones are malleable and susceptible to change in young-adults following a brief psychoeducational intervention.
Subject Areas
adolescent; behavior; cognition; mobile phone
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Comments (0)
We encourage comments and feedback from a broad range of readers. See criteria for comments and our diversity statement.
Leave a public commentSend a private comment to the author(s)