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<p>Traditional screen time research is dominated by cross-sectional designs that conflate between-person differences with within-person processes, limiting causal interpretation of associations with wellbeing. Smartphone unlocks provide objective, timestamped markers of digital engagement that are amenable to intensive longitudinal analysis, but they capture checking frequency rather than total screen time. This preregistered study (OSF: osf.io/qjxy6) evaluates smartphone unlock frequency as a within-person outcome for fixed-effects panel models and examines its associations with academic stress (a calendar-based demand proxy empirically distinguished from EMA sadness), physical activity, and weekend status using continuous sensing data from a sample of college students (47 undergraduates; 3,290 person-days). Fixed‑effects panel regressions estimated within-person associations between daily unlocks per hour and time-varying predictors, controlling for individual and calendar-day effects. Unlocks showed substantial within-person variability across students (coefficients of variation typically exceeding 25%). Time-varying physical activity showed a small, non-significant negative association with unlocks, so the preregistered main-effect hypothesis for physical activity (H2) was not supported. In exploratory analyses, higher daily physical activity was associated with weaker stress unlock associations and is therefore interpreted cautiously. Days coded as academically stressful showed higher within-person unlock rates than non-stress days; whereas weekends showed lower unlock rates. Smartphone unlock frequency may serve as a feasible within-person digital behaviour outcome for continuous sensing studies of academic stress, physical activity, and weekend recovery in similar student samples, although findings should be interpreted in light of the 2013 cohort and evolving smartphone use patterns.</p>

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Using Fixed-Effects Panel Models to Assess Within-Person Variation in Smartphone Unlocks from Continuous Sensing

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月28日

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  • Kofi Nyantakyi Appiah,
  • Nathanael Adu,
  • Divyanshu Kumar Singh

摘要

Traditional screen time research is dominated by cross-sectional designs that conflate between-person differences with within-person processes, limiting causal interpretation of associations with wellbeing. Smartphone unlocks provide objective, timestamped markers of digital engagement that are amenable to intensive longitudinal analysis, but they capture checking frequency rather than total screen time. This preregistered study (OSF: osf.io/qjxy6) evaluates smartphone unlock frequency as a within-person outcome for fixed-effects panel models and examines its associations with academic stress (a calendar-based demand proxy empirically distinguished from EMA sadness), physical activity, and weekend status using continuous sensing data from a sample of college students (47 undergraduates; 3,290 person-days). Fixed‑effects panel regressions estimated within-person associations between daily unlocks per hour and time-varying predictors, controlling for individual and calendar-day effects. Unlocks showed substantial within-person variability across students (coefficients of variation typically exceeding 25%). Time-varying physical activity showed a small, non-significant negative association with unlocks, so the preregistered main-effect hypothesis for physical activity (H2) was not supported. In exploratory analyses, higher daily physical activity was associated with weaker stress unlock associations and is therefore interpreted cautiously. Days coded as academically stressful showed higher within-person unlock rates than non-stress days; whereas weekends showed lower unlock rates. Smartphone unlock frequency may serve as a feasible within-person digital behaviour outcome for continuous sensing studies of academic stress, physical activity, and weekend recovery in similar student samples, although findings should be interpreted in light of the 2013 cohort and evolving smartphone use patterns.