Smartphone Addiction and Dissociative Experience: An investigation in Italian adolescents aged between 14 and 19 years

Introduction: The aim of this investigation was the exploration of Smartphone addiction and dissociative experience and their consequences in adolescents. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 200 adolescents, aged between 14 and 19 years recruited from two Public High Schools in Catania (Sicily, Italy). The materials were constituted by background questions, the Dissociative experience scale, the Smartphone addiction scale and the Ten Item Personality Inventory. Results: Results showed that boys only suffer of Smartphone addiction. About personality factors, the higher was this Smartphone addiction, the higher was the level of agreeableness and lower the emotional stability. Also, according to DSM-5, there was also no presence of dissociative disorders, but there was only a little correlation with “absorption and imaginative assimilation” dimension. Conclusion: Despite the massive use of smartphones in teenage boys, there was no presence of pathological disorders such as the so called “dissociative trance” [16]. There was just a slight correlation with the "absorption and imaginative assimilation" dimension, which is the tendency to engage our mind in situations of altered or highly focused attention. This phenomenon is relatively and frequently normal amongst the non-clinic population but it needs attention in order to prevent and avoid real psychopathological disorders.