How ‘addicted’ to their smartphone is your child? And are you any better?
Want to understand whether your child (or anyone else in your family) is too obsessed with their smartphone? Take this short, 6-question screening for problematic smartphone use , based on the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS). We've put ‘addicted’ in quotes on purpose. The result isn’t a formal diagnosis (more on that below). It’s a quick, evidence-based way to see if a family conversation is needed.
This works best as a self-assessment. The scale was designed for people to answer about themselves, so it’s most accurate when the person answers their own questions. If you’re checking on your child, we’d really recommend sitting with them and asking them the questions directly. And do it about yourself too - most of us are more attached to our phones than we think.
What does this mean?
A score at or above 23 is not, on its own, a cause for alarm - plenty of people cross it, and a phone is woven into work, friendships and daily life. It simply means it’s worth paying attention to.
The encouraging news is there are more and more ways to build a healthier relationship with a phone. If you’re seriously worried - phone use is affecting sleep, school or work, mood, or relationships - a sensible first step is to speak to your GP, who can point you to the right support. [Swap in your preferred referral route here.]
If you’d like to understand it better, see our free guide, where we round up the research, tools and practical methods that help people take back control of their screen time.
The phone is just the instrument
This screens how attached someone is to their phone - but the phone is only the delivery device. What a person is actually drawn to varies enormously: messaging and social media, gaming, gambling, video, news, shopping. Two people with the same score can be pulled by completely different things.
So read the number as a rough gauge of how far it has gone, not a label for one specific condition. If the score is high, the useful next question is: what are they reaching for, and why?
Why we built this
We think most people are far more attached to their devices than they realise. A genuine diagnosis can only come from an individual, professional assessment - no quiz can do that. But a validated screening tool like this is a good, quick way to flag problematic use and prompt an honest look.
A higher score points to a higher likelihood of a problem. The exact relationship between the score and a formal ‘addiction’ isn’t fully established yet - which is precisely why we call this a screen, not a diagnosis.
About SABAS & the Griffiths model
SABAS (the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale) is a six-item screening questionnaire published by Csibi, Griffiths and colleagues in 2018. Each of its six questions maps to one component of Griffiths’ ‘components model of addiction’ (2005): salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse - the six features researchers see across many addictions.
Its pitfalls, honestly:
- Each component is measured by a single question, so the six rows above are a reflective snapshot, not six separately validated scores.
- It was designed as a self-report scale - answering about someone else records your impression, not their experience.
- The 23 threshold comes from a study of adolescents self-reporting; it’s the one evidence-based cut-off, which is why it’s the only line we draw.
- ‘Smartphone addiction’ is not a recognised diagnosis, unlike Gaming Disorder, which the WHO does formally recognise.
Download our Smartphone Safety Guide for Parents
Practical strategies for setting limits and starting the conversation.
Download free guideNow reflect on your own relationship with your phone
Take the same short reflection again, this time about your own habits. Nothing more to fill in - your answers go straight to the questions.
This tool is for guidance only and is not a clinical diagnosis.
