Attitude Toward the Smartphone (Stress Coping)

What it measures

A four-item scale measuring the tendency to turn to one's smartphone as a mechanism for coping with daily stress, anxiety, and social discomfort. Items capture habitual smartphone use in moments of stress, the device's role as a self-comfort tool, and its use as an escape from uncomfortable social situations. This subscale operationalises the pacifier function of the smartphone — using it as an emotion regulation device — which is the central theoretical construct in the Melumad & Pham (2020) research programme.

Representative items

• Using my phone helps me escape from my daily pressures.
• I often turn to my smartphone in a moment of stress/anxiety.
• I use my phone as a way of comforting myself when I feel stressed.

Citation

Melumad, Shiri and Michel Tuan Pham (2020). The smartphone as a pacifier: A psychological and physiological investigation of its effects on stressed consumers. Journal of Marketing Research, 57(2), 236–256.