An interventional study of Smartphone-based behavioral intervention and Self-monitoring of smartphone use in Attention Deficit Hyerpactivity Disorder and Smartphone Addiction, sponsored by Education University of Hong Kong. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 12 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-07-30.
Sponsored by Education University of Hong Kong · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This study will develop and evaluate a smartphone-based behavioral intervention for adolescents with Attention-Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and smartphone overuse in Hong Kong. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Adolescent participants will:
Parent participants will:
170 studies on the registry are indexed under Internet Addiction Disorder; 49 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 88 across 95 interventional studies indexed under Internet Addiction Disorder.
Browse Internet Addiction Disorder studies →Education University of Hong Kong is the lead sponsor of 35 studies on the registry; 11 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
The treatment group will receive a 12-week individualized smartphone-based behavioral intervention based on the following strategies. They will be contacted once a week to collect the objective smartphone use patterns and check for compliance of the intervention strategies.
Behavioral: Smartphone-based behavioral intervention
The control group will receive information about the known benefits and risks of SO and activate their smartphones' screentime monitoring setting. They will be contacted once a week to collect the objective smartphone use patterns, but they will self-monitor their smartphone usage.
Other: Self-monitoring of smartphone use
The proposed study will use a behavioral smartphone-based intervention in a 12-week RCT among clinically diagnosed ADHD adolescents in Hong Kong. Guided by a conceptual framework on SO in ADHD, we will implement specific strategies that counter the potentially addictive qualities of smartphones using built-in smartphone functions that have been previously shown to be effective.
Participants will receive information about the known benefits and risks of SO and activate their smartphones' screentime monitoring setting. They will receive weekly reminders to submit their smartphone usage data.
Minutes of smartphone use
Objective smartphone use data will be collected via smartphone apps (e.g., "ScreenTime" on Apple or "Digital Wellbeing" on Android) to trace the pattern of smartphone use of each participant. Participants will send screenshots of the minutes of smartphone use over the previous 7 days on their phones.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks, and 12 months
Categories of smartphone use
Objective smartphone use data will be collected via smartphone apps (e.g., "ScreenTime" on Apple or "Digital Wellbeing" on Android) to trace the pattern of smartphone use of each participant. Participants will send screenshots of the distribution of minutes spent according to categories of use (social networking, games, entertainment, productivity, etc.) over the previous 7 days on their phones.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks, and 12 months
Number of screen unlocks or "pickups"
Objective smartphone use data will be collected via smartphone apps (e.g., "ScreenTime" on Apple or "Digital Wellbeing" on Android) to trace the pattern of smartphone use of each participant. Participants will send screenshots of the number of screen unlocks or "pickups" over the previous 7 days on their phones.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks, and 12 months
Number of notifications
Objective smartphone use data will be collected via smartphone apps (e.g., "ScreenTime" on Apple or "Digital Wellbeing" on Android) to trace the pattern of smartphone use of each participant. Participants will send screenshots of the number of notifications received over the previous 7 days on their phones.
Time frame: Baseline, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks, and 12 months
Smartphone dependence
To allow for comparisons with existing studies, we will use the Smartphone Addiction Scale - Short Version validated in Hong Kong, which was designed for the assessment of smartphone dependence and showed good reliability and validity. The scale has ten items, such as "Missing planned work due to smartphone use" and "I will never give up using my smartphone even when my daily life is already greatly affected by it". Each item was measured by 6-point scales, from 1= "strongly disagree" to 6 = "strongly agree". Total score on the scale will be used to assess the degree of each participant's smartphone dependence, with suggested cut-off values of smartphone overuse for male and female was 31 and 33, respectively.
Time frame: Baseline, 13 weeks, and 12 months
ADHD symptoms
Parents will rate their child's behaviors on a 7-point scale using the Strengths and Weaknesses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms and Normal Behaviour Scale, which rephrased the 18 ADHD items of the DSM into neutral or positive statements. Scores of each statement range from -3 (far above average) to +3 (far below average), anchoring on normative behavior in age-matched adolescents. Two subscales on inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity symptoms can be derived. Adolescents will also self-rate their ADHD symptoms.
Time frame: Baseline, 13 weeks, and 12 months
Resting-state EEG frequency
During the EEG recording process, adolescent participants will be asked to relax and avoid swallowing and movements that may cause artifacts. For 5 min of recording, participants will look at a blank piece of paper on the table. For another 5 min of recording, they will look at their own smartphone, face-down with notifications and sound turned off, on the table. The order will be counterbalanced across participants. The target outcome measures are alpha (8-12Hz) and delta (1-4Hz) EEG frequency bands.
Time frame: Baseline, 13 weeks, and 12 months
No study locations are listed for this record.
Plan to share: No — Aggregate and anonymized data will be shared in open access publications, but individual participant data will not shared to protect the privacy of the participants, as stipulated in the ethical review approval.
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jul 2025. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Education University of Hong Kong