Study Smart! A Randomized Control Trial Examining the Effectiveness of an Individual Planning Intervention to Reduce Smartphone Interferences on Students' Academic Performance and Well-being

Smartphones have become integral parts of students' everyday life. Research has shown that students excessively use their smartphones during semester times, in lectures, and while studying and that their smartphone use seldomly serves educational purposes. Unsurprisingly, smartphone interferences within such academically relevant situations can impair students' performance. For instance, it has been shown that students are more distracted, experience less study-related flow, evaluate their own performance more negatively, and achieve lower grades when engaging with their smartphones in academic contexts. Besides these performance-related downsides, research also suggests that smartphone use can impair students' well-being. Excessive use of smartphones and social media applications has been linked to various well-being-related issues such as negative affect, stress, and anxiety. As students have been identified as a high-risk group prone to smartphone overuse and smartphone addiction, they should be particularly susceptible to such well-being-related consequences.

The overall goal of all institutions of higher education must be the promotion of students' academic success as well as students' well-being as these two interrelated factors act as important predictors for both individual and public health and functioning. Consequently, while it is valuable to examine the negative effects of smartphone use on performance and well-being in academic contexts and understand their underlying processes, it is just as important to explore possible interventions to mitigate such negative outcomes. Here, it is necessary to answer questions regarding the effectiveness of such interventions (e.g., smartphone abstinence) on a variety of outcome variables and incorporate possible mediating or moderating influences relevant to the effects of such interventions on students' performance and well-being. Unfortunately, intervention studies in this regard are scarce. Yet, existing research indicates inconsistent findings. In fact, there is some evidence that short separation phases from smartphones result in higher anxiety levels. Moreover, phases of smartphone and social media abstinence appear to go along with smartphone cravings and potential overuse after the intervention is over. However, some studies found promising effects of separation phases on well-being, life satisfaction, procrastination, perceived stress or depression. A first study that investigated separation phases from smartphones among students revealed positive effects on individual well-being and performance by enhancing personal lifestyle, health, and academic management and reducing smartphone overuse. Yet, such intervention studies are extremely limited and need to be studied more rigorously. Especially moderating or mediating variables need to be taken into account to explain the effectiveness of smartphone abstinence interventions. In this light, smartphone addiction and fear of missing out (FOMO) seem to play an important role concerning the detrimental effect of smartphone abstinence on well-being. Finally, existing studies have mainly focused on the effects of smartphone separation phases lasting several hours or even days. As these are rather unrealistic settings, future interventions should be designed in ways that integrate pauses from smartphone use into people's everyday life.

Consequently, the present study aims at investigating the effectiveness of an intervention in which students are to develop action plans (BCT 1.4; ) as well as coping plans (BCT 1.2) allowing them to study without smartphone interferences. Planning is a very simple strategy with impressive effects, as indicated by medium to large effect sizes on behavior observed across various populations and behaviors. During a planning intervention, an individual is linking a situational cue (when/where) to an intended behavioral response (how) by mental simulation of anticipated situations. Thus, the goal is to link a specific cue to an intended action in order to translate goal intentions into behavior. In addition, planning is often complemented by coping planning (anticipation of barriers and the formation of plans on how to overcome them). In this study, individuals are to complete a planning sheet that contains both action and coping plans to restrict their own smartphone use during learning periods.

The measured outcomes include a variety of performance- (i.e., ability to concentrate, perceived learning achievement, exam grade, exam-related stress) and well-being-related variables (e.g., positive and negative affect, anxiety, subjective well-being). Furthermore, in this study, the mediating role of variables sought to be promoted through the intervention (i.e. decreased daily smartphone use, decreased daily use of social media applications, increased exam preparation-related flow) and possible moderators (i.e. smartphone addiction, FoMO) are also investigated.

The aims of the present study are threefold. First, the effectiveness of planning a separation from the smartphone during an exam phase is compared against a control group on a device-based assessment of smartphone use. Besides this first main aim, it is also aimed at specifically comparing the effectiveness of the planning intervention to a control group on academic performance and well-being among students. Third, this study examines the assumed underlying mechanisms as well as possible moderators of the planning intervention.