Maartje Boer

CHAPTER 9 314 may be considered as normative adolescent behavior that often contributes to adolescents’ involvement with their social environment. Given that our studies suggest that SMU problems are negatively associated with several wellbeing domains, and that SMU problems tend to be persistent over time, developing prevention and intervention strategies to reduce or overcome SMU problems may be warranted. However, more research replicating our findings is important to substantiate the need for such strategies. To that end, our findings suggest that the SMD-scale is suited for future research on adolescent problematic SMU. To extend current knowledge on problematic SMU, research focusing on the clinical relevance and individual susceptibility to (the harmful effects of) problematic SMU, as well as the theoretical mechanisms underlying the negative association between problematic SMU and wellbeing, are considered promising.