Dr. Juan Albacete-Maza in the III International Digital Well-being Conference, in Granada
From 21–23 May 2025, the MobilePressure project was present at the 3rd International Digital Well-being Conference in the beautiful city of Granada (Spain). The event brought together researchers and practitioners focused on digital technologies, mental health and wellbeing; an ideal setting to discuss when and why children receive their first smartphone.
One of the researchers of the MobilePressure project delivered an oral presentation titled “Understanding Early Smartphone Ownership: Determinants and evidence from Barcelona”. The talk was grounded in the project’s recent systematic review, published as Determinants of early smartphone ownership: a research gap in the study of problematic smartphone use in children and adolescents, and complemented by first insights from the empirical study currently underway in Barcelona.
The presentation had three main pillars. First, it introduced Early Smartphone Ownership (ESO) as a specific category of study: not just “smartphone use” in general, but the question of how early full smartphone ownership begins and why that timing matters for later wellbeing. Second, it outlined the factors identified in the systematic review (including parental beliefs and concerns, school expectations, peer and social pressures, and narratives around digital inclusion), highlighting the research gap: only a small fraction of existing studies treat ESO and its determinants as a central object of analysis. Third, it presented the design of the Barcelona empirical study, which surveys parents to both test the factors found in the review and to explore additional ones (such as neighbourhood and school context, family work patterns or parental smartphone use) that may also shape when children receive their first smartphone.
The session received very positive feedback. The Q&A sparked a lively discussion about how ESO connects to digital wellbeing, prevention and policy, and the conversation continued during breaks, where many attendees expressed strong interest in the MobilePressure project and its focus on the timing of smartphone acquisition as a missing piece in current debates.
A few weeks later, from 5–7 July 2025, MobilePressure was also present at the 2025 Chinese Economist Society China Conference in Guangzhou (China), as part of a research stay at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) in Suzhou. On this occasion, an oral presentation titled “Understanding Early Smartphone Ownership: A systematic review and first steps of empirical evidence” again brought ESO to the centre of the discussion. The talk summarised the main findings of the systematic review and briefly presented the Barcelona empirical study, with a particular focus on how parents’ decisions about “when to give a smartphone” are embedded in everyday family routines, school expectations and peer dynamics.
Dr. Juan Albacete-Maza in the 2025 Chinese Economist Society China Conference, in Guagzhou
In Guangzhou, discussion focused on how the timing of smartphone ownership relates to children’s daily lives and wellbeing in different cultural contexts. Participants showed interest in ESO as a concrete, measurable entry point for understanding broader questions about childhood, education and digital practices, rather than treating age of acquisition as a secondary detail.
For MobilePressure, participation in conferences like those in Granada and Guangzhou plays a double role. On the one hand, it is a key channel for disseminating results, raising awareness about ESO and sharing evidence with diverse international communities working on digital wellbeing and childhood. On the other, it is an important opportunity for enriching the project, as comments, critiques and informal conversations help refine research questions, improve instruments and open possibilities for future comparative work across cities and countries.
If you work on related topics or are simply interested in the MobilePressure project, feel free to get in touch via the project PI: cristina.montanola@iqs.url.edu.
