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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

Digital behavioral addictions in adolescents and young adults: Protocol for a scoping review of definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, and equity

  • Sasha R. Sioni1
  • Jenna L. Butner2
  • Nathan A. Carroll3
  • Jay Al-Hashimi4
  • Sten H. Vermund5
5 affiliations
  1. 1Health Management and Policy, Patti & Allan Herbert Business School, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  2. 2Department of Medical Education, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, United States of America
  3. 3Department of Internal Medicine (General Medicine), Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
  4. 4Department of Psychiatry, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Hackensack Meridian Health, Neptune City, New Jersey, United States of America
  5. 5The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
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Abstract

Background: Digital behaviors associated with impaired control and functional impairment are described using heterogeneous terms and measures. Gaming Disorder is recognized in ICD-11, Internet Gaming Disorder remains a DSM-5-TR condition for further study, and problematic social media and smartphone use are research constructs rather than established diagnoses. These distinctions avoid equating screening-positive use with clinical disorder. Objective: This scoping review will map definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, implementation, and equity among adolescents and young adults. Methods: Following JBI guidance, we will search nine bibliographic and grey-literature databases and supplementary sources from inception, without database-level date or language limits. The core population is aged 10–24 years; separately extractable data for ages 25–29 will form a secondary comparison stratum, while inseparable broader-age samples will be used only for contextual purposes. Two reviewers will independently screen and chart. Automation will not make eligibility, appraisal, synthesis, or interpretation decisions; frameworks have bounded module-specific roles. Every final eligibility decision and extracted finding from six eligible non-English languages will undergo source-language human verification. Instruments will be classified per use into graded evidence tiers without tier-based exclusion. Result-level rules will distinguish determinants, concurrent associations, harms, intervention effectiveness, adverse events, and implementation outcomes. All seven module-specific charting forms will be completed before calibration, and module-stratified calibration will precede full charting. Primary and secondary evidence will remain separate, and overlap will be tracked through study, report, sample, review, and result identifiers. Qualitative findings will undergo dual-coded framework analysis. Source-level appraisal will be descriptive and non-exclusionary. No confirmatory hypothesis testing or meta-analysis is planned. Expected contribution: The review will produce construct- and instrument-specific evidence maps and an equity-oriented gap map intended to inform measurement selection, service and policy planning, intervention development, and priorities for focused systematic reviews. Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NPWTV

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{sioni2026digital,
  title = {{Digital behavioral addictions in adolescents and young adults: Protocol for a scoping review of definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, and equity}},
  author = {Sasha R. Sioni and Jenna L. Butner and Nathan A. Carroll and Jay Al-Hashimi and Sten H. Vermund},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0348860},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348860},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Digital behavioral addictions in adolescents and young adults: Protocol for a scoping review of definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, and equity
AU  - Sasha R. Sioni
AU  - Jenna L. Butner
AU  - Nathan A. Carroll
AU  - Jay Al-Hashimi
AU  - Sten H. Vermund
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/11
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0348860
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0348860
AB  - Background: Digital behaviors associated with impaired control and functional impairment are described using heterogeneous terms and measures. Gaming Disorder is recognized in ICD-11, Internet Gaming Disorder remains a DSM-5-TR condition for further study, and problematic social media and smartphone use are research constructs rather than established diagnoses. These distinctions avoid equating screening-positive use with clinical disorder. Objective: This scoping review will map definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, implementation, and equity among adolescents and young adults. Methods: Following JBI guidance, we will search nine bibliographic and grey-literature databases and supplementary sources from inception, without database-level date or language limits. The core population is aged 10–24 years; separately extractable data for ages 25–29 will form a secondary comparison stratum, while inseparable broader-age samples will be used only for contextual purposes. Two reviewers will independently screen and chart. Automation will not make eligibility, appraisal, synthesis, or interpretation decisions; frameworks have bounded module-specific roles. Every final eligibility decision and extracted finding from six eligible non-English languages will undergo source-language human verification. Instruments will be classified per use into graded evidence tiers without tier-based exclusion. Result-level rules will distinguish determinants, concurrent associations, harms, intervention effectiveness, adverse events, and implementation outcomes. All seven module-specific charting forms will be completed before calibration, and module-stratified calibration will precede full charting. Primary and secondary evidence will remain separate, and overlap will be tracked through study, report, sample, review, and result identifiers. Qualitative findings will undergo dual-coded framework analysis. Source-level appraisal will be descriptive and non-exclusionary. No confirmatory hypothesis testing or meta-analysis is planned. Expected contribution: The review will produce construct- and instrument-specific evidence maps and an equity-oriented gap map intended to inform measurement selection, service and policy planning, intervention development, and priorities for focused systematic reviews. Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NPWTV
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -