Metacognitions About Problematic Smartphone Use Test

People who wonder what beliefs accompany their smartphone habits, including beliefs about control, relief, or harm, can use this questionnaire as a focused self-reflection tool. The Metacognitions About Problematic Smartphone Use Test examines the thoughts attached to phone use rather than judging a person’s character. For people concerned about problematic smartphone use, this questionnaire helps them notice which beliefs may deserve closer attention in everyday life.

What This Assessment Explores

Items cover situations involving distraction, connection, intrusive thoughts, and interference with responsibilities, alongside concerns about control and harm. These situations are not separate result dimensions: the result groups responses into two belief dimensions defined as perceived lack of control and perceived potential harm, and beliefs that smartphone use aids emotional and cognitive regulation and facilitates social contact.

Its two result dimensions are:

• Negative Beliefs (5-25) assess perceived lack of control and potential harm; Low is 5-11, Moderate is 12-18, and High is 19-25.
• Positive Beliefs (5-25) assess whether smartphone use supports emotional or cognitive regulation and social contact; Low is 5-11, Moderate is 12-18, and High is 19-25.

Together, the displayed dimensions let readers consider whether helpful beliefs, concerning beliefs, or both are prominent. A result describes reported beliefs, not necessarily phone use.

Methodology and Evidence Base

Each item uses a five-point agreement scale from Strongly disagree through Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, and Strongly agree. The result presents the responses through the displayed dimensions for descriptive interpretation.

The method is a metacognitive self-report. Rather than measuring phone activity directly, the items ask what the respondent believes smartphone use does: whether it relieves distress or supports connection, and whether it feels harmful or difficult to control.

The closest published evidence is the Metacognitions about Problematic Smartphone Use Questionnaire (Miklyaeva et al., 2024), whose abbreviated Russian-language version is conceptually consistent with these domains. The questionnaire is also consistent with the original self-report measure developed by Casale, Caponi, and Fioravanti (2020), but is not identical to either publication. These comparisons provide conceptual context; they do not establish that this online questionnaire reproduces either publication’s validation or scoring.

Current stress, loneliness, workload, self-awareness, and willingness to answer honestly can influence a self-report result. Scores should therefore be read as reported belief patterns, not as objective phone-use data or a clinical diagnosis.