Digital behavioral addictions in adolescents and young adults: Protocol for a scoping review of definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, and equity.

Abstract

Digital behaviors associated with impaired control and functional impairment are described using heterogeneous terms and measures. Gaming Disorder is recognized in ICD-11, Internet Gaming Disorder remains a DSM-5-TR condition for further study, and problematic social media and smartphone use are research constructs rather than established diagnoses. These distinctions avoid equating screening-positive use with clinical disorder. This scoping review will map definitions, measurement, epidemiology, determinants, harms, interventions, implementation, and equity among adolescents and young adults. Following JBI guidance, we will search nine bibliographic and grey-literature databases and supplementary sources from inception, without database-level date or language limits. The core population is aged 10-24 years; separately extractable data for ages 25-29 will form a secondary comparison stratum, while inseparable broader-age samples will be used only for contextual purposes. Two reviewers will independently screen and chart. Automation will not make eligibility, appraisal, synthesis, or interpretation decisions; frameworks have bounded module-specific roles. Every final eligibility decision and extracted finding from six eligible non-English languages will undergo source-language human verification. Instruments will be classified per use into graded evidence tiers without tier-based exclusion. Result-level rules will distinguish determinants, concurrent associations, harms, intervention effectiveness, adverse events, and implementation outcomes. All seven module-specific charting forms will be completed before calibration, and module-stratified calibration will precede full charting. Primary and secondary evidence will remain separate, and overlap will be tracked through study, report, sample, review, and result identifiers. Qualitative findings will undergo dual-coded framework analysis. Source-level appraisal will be descriptive and non-exclusionary. No confirmatory hypothesis testing or meta-analysis is planned. The review will produce construct- and instrument-specific evidence maps and an equity-oriented gap map intended to inform measurement selection, service and policy planning, intervention development, and priorities for focused systematic reviews. Registration: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/NPWTV.