ArticlePLOS digital health2024
Work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and work-life conflict: A scoping review.
Article in PLOS digital health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Always available? A systematic review on extended work-related availability, health outcomes and work-family conflict.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Latent Profiles of Problematic Short-Video Use and Presenteeism Among Hospital Nurses: The Mediating Role of Work Interference With Personal Life.Nursing open · 2026Observational
- Digital Gaze and Vicarious Trauma Among Intensive Care Unit Nurses in Alarm-Monitoring Ecologies: Qualitative Interview Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- The relationship between using communication media in non-working hours and job burnout in Jeddah.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Validation of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) for forest firefighters: implications for human-technology interaction and occupational safety in the future of work.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Translation, cultural adaptation, and psychometric validation of the Arabic version of the Digital Life Balance Scale in an Arabic-speaking university student sample.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Work-related instant messaging and calling stress (WRIMCS) among physicians: a novel occupational health risk?Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2025Article
- When smartphones take over: a mixed methods study of phubbing in child and adolescent psychiatry.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Personality and Smartphone Addiction in Romania's Digital Age: The Mediating Role of Professional Status and the Moderating Effect of Adaptive Coping.Journal of Intelligence · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Predictors of Work-Life Balance Among Nursing Personnel During the Sixth Wave of the Pandemic: The Role of Stress and Sociodemographic and Work-Related Variables.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Digital Detox Strategies and Mental Health: A Comprehensive Scoping Review of Why, Where, and How.Cureus · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over recent decades the use of smartphones for work purposes has burgeoned both within and beyond working hours. The aim of the study was to conduct a scoping review to explore the association between the use of smartphone technology for work purposes in off-job hours with employees' self-reported work-life conflict. Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework was adopted. Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Central, Web of Science, ProQuest Theses, Emerald, Business Source Complete, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar. Articles were eligible that reported on a sample of workers, were published in English between 1st January 2012 and 29th November 2023. The review was conducted and reported using a quality assessment checklist and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). Data charting and synthesis was undertaken narratively, using the framework approach and thematic analysis. Twenty-three studies were identified, conducted in nine countries. Nineteen studies (83%) showed a significant association between increased use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict, with small-to-moderate effect sizes. This relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work, and communication about family demands with one's supervisor. Moderators either strengthened or attenuated the relationship between use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict. Findings suggest that smartphone use during off-job hours is likely to impact negatively on work-life conflict, which has implications for employee wellbeing. Managers could play a key role in clarifying expectations about after-hours availability, reducing job pressure, advocating psychological detachment from work in off-job hours where it is appropriate, and creating a workplace culture where communication about the interplay between work and home life is encouraged. The protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WFZU6).
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.