Contenance: a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of a mobile intervention on healthy smartphone use

INTERVENTION: Intervention 1: Arm 1 (Intervention group) Five consecutive modules with daily exercises (each ca. 1‐5 min). Each module goes over 4 days (in sum: 20 days; D1‐D20) 1. Module: „Observe“, D1‐D4 1 exercise on psychoeducation: self‐awareness, 2 exercises on mindfulness, 1 exercise on perception of impulses 2. Module: „Reflect“, D5‐D8 1 exercise on psychoeducation: reflection of personal smartphone habits, 2 exercises on identification of situational and emotional smartphone trigger, 1 exercise on mindfulness use of social media 3. Module: „Vision“, D9‐D12 1 exercise on understanding of values as well as smartphone‐related goal setting, 1 exercise on value‐related committed action, 2 exercises on mindfulness 4. Module: „Plan“, D13‐D16 1 exercise on action planning and value‐related committed action, 1 exercise on coping planning, 2 exercises on alternative behavioral responses in critical situations 5. Module: „Support“, D17‐D20 1 exercise on habit formation: Design of the smartphone screen, 2 exercises on smartphone use in certain environments, 1 exercise on smartphone use in social situations Intervention 2: Arm 2 (Active control group) Daily task: Form a plan on a smartphone time‐out over one hour for the subsequent day From day to day, participants can choose a new time for their smartphone time‐out (i.e., based on previous experiences with the time‐out task and based on demands of the upcoming day) CONDITION: non‐clinical population, problems with and/or motivation to change own smartphone use PRIMARY OUTCOME: Changes in problematic smartphone use (up to 6 weeks following baseline assessment), PSU (Foerster, Roser, Schoeni, & Röösli, 2015), also measured at T1 (Baseline/Randomization), T2 (T1+3 weeks; after intervention period), and T3 (T1+6 weeks; follow‐up) SECONDARY OUTCOME: Changes in well‐being (up to 6 weeks following baseline assessment), PERMA Profiler (Butler & Kern, 2016), measured at T1 (Baseline/Randomization), T2 (T1+3 weeks; after intervention period), and T3 (T1+6 weeks; follow‐up) INCLUSION CRITERIA: Ownership and use of a smartphone based on iOS; Sufficient knowledge of the English language to understand and complete the questionnaires and the intervention material