Uncovering the associations between different motivations and the heterogeneity of problematic smartphone use: a person-centered perspective

Previous studies adopting variable-centered approaches have reported the relationship between mental health variables, motivations, and problematic smartphone use. However, little is known about the heterogeneity in problematic smartphone use and how different motivations contribute to such heterogeneity. Against this background, we employed person-centered methods of latent profile analysis to test different profiles of problematic smartphone use and regression mixture modeling to examine the associations between different motivations and this heterogeneity in a sample of 1200 smartphone users. Our results identified three classes for the whole sample and the male and female participants separately, and these classes were as Mild, Moderate, and Severe classes. Compared to the Mild Class, participants with higher escapism motivation were more likely to belong to the Moderate and Severe classes, both for the whole sample and across different genders. Those higher in entertainment motivation were more likely to be included in the Moderate and Severe classes for the whole and female participants while in the Moderate Class for males. Conversely, participants with higher social interaction motivation were less likely to fall into the Moderate Class. Our findings clarify the typologies of smartphone users and the relationship between diverse motivations and latent profile membership across different genders.