The Role of Difficulty in Emotion Regulation and Impulsivity (Five Factor Model) in Predicting Problematic Mobile Use in Adolescents

Problematic use of mobile phones in adolescents is very high and increasing. Therefore, the present research aimed to investigate the role of difficulty in emotion regulation and impulsivity (five-factor model) in predicting problematic mobile use in adolescents. This study was descriptive form type of correlation. The research population was the secondary high school students of Urmia city in 2020-21 academic years (12,450 students), which from the number of 400 people were selected as a sample by the available sampling method. The research tools were the difficulty in emotion regulation scale short form (DERS-SF; Kaufman et al., 2015), impulsivity behavior scale short form (IBS-SF; Cyders et al., 2014), and problematic mobile use scale (PMUS; Jenaro et al., 2007). Data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression in SPSS-19 software. The findings showed that difficulty in emotion regulating (and dimensions of limited emotion regulation strategies, non-acceptance, impulse control difficulty, difficulty engagement in goals, non-emotional awareness, and non-emotional clarity) and impulsivity (and dimensions of negative urgency, non-premeditation, lack of perseverance, sensation seeking and positive urgency) had a positive and significant relationship with problematic mobile use (P<0.01). Based on the regression analysis, a combination of difficulty in emotion regulation and impulsivity could predict 17.1% of the variance of problematic mobile use. In addition, a Combination of the dimensions of difficulty in emotion regulation and impulsivity could explain 20.8% of the variance of problematic mobile use. In addition (P<0.001). Therefore, planning to reduce the difficulty in emotion regulating and impulsivity through workshops is essential to decrease problematic mobile use.