The portability, sophistication and connectivity prompt users to revolve around multiple applications on the phones at all times. Teenagers are of particular concern because they are usually overoptimistic about their online activity management but underestimate the negative impacts. This study aims to address individual and parental factors related to teenagers’ (mainly aged 13 to 18) smartphone addiction tendency (SAT) with a representative sample of parent-child dyads around Taiwan. We try to draw a holistic view of how Taiwan youngsters use their smartphones and how their parents mediate that use by surveying all possible factors related to that use. According to the analytical results, we ascertained that smartphone ownership and dissimilar purposes for surfing the Internet are associated with students’ SAT. Online games and trade are related to younger students’ SAT, while SNSs is associated with older students’ SAT. Additionally, teenagers’ cybersecurity knowledge regarding smartphones is negatively related to their SAT. Lastly, we found parent-reported mediation strategies are barely effective, and parents are even unaware of older students’ smartphone use. The implications for suitable interventions in family and school contexts are discussed followed by the analyses.

Introduction

Because of the well-deployed telecommunication infrastructure and the user-friendly designs of smartphones, the smartphone has become one of the information communication technologies in widespread use (Cho, 2015). Research has shown that spending substantial amounts of time using smartphones is problematic for some individuals (Haug et al., 2015; Mok et al., 2014). The excessive use of smartphones may be associated with certain negative outcomes, including academic failure, ill health and life imbalance (Chung et al., 2018; Hawi & Samaha, 2016; Kee, Byun, Jung, & Choi, 2016; Samaha & Hawi, 2016). Teenagers are of particular concern in regard to the influence of smartphone overuse; they are often overoptimistic about their online activity management but underestimate the negative impacts. For example, teenagers use smartphones for a longer time than adults expect (Kwon, Kim, Cho, & Yang, 2014), and they have low risk perceptions when using the Internet (Lareki, Martínez de Morentin, Altuna, & Amenabar, 2017). Smartphone addiction was found to be significant in adolescents with lower levels of self-control (Kim, Min, Min, Lee, & Yoo, 2018), and highrisk smartphone-addicted adolescents showed severer levels of behavioral and emotional problems (Lee, Lee, & Lee, 2016). Although the precise definition of smartphone addiction was not yet determined by academics, some research has already focused on its correlates and possible causes. The common driving factor in smartphone addiction is domesticity. Some factors, such as feeling stressed for not meeting expectations (Chiu, 2014) or bearing specific psychosocial traits molded by the family (Bian & Leung, 2014; Mok et al., 2014), are inherent to individuals.