Seeking Guidance for my PhD conceptual model

[Sajan Sreedharan]

Respected Neeraj Sir and other group members, 

I hope you are doing well.

I'm working on my PhD and would appreciate your guidance on  development of the conceptual model for my PhD thesis. 

I am planning to conduct my research using the following conceptual framework: 4–6 antecedent variables → digital addiction → outcome variable, with one mediating variable between digital addiction and the outcome variable. I also intend to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the antecedent variables. 

My concern is whether I can focus solely on digital addiction (an umbrella concept that includes social media addiction, smartphone addiction, internet addiction, etc.) by using a digital addiction scale (a higher-order construct scale), or whether I should focus on a specific type of digital addiction, such as smartphone addiction or social media addiction, for my PhD thesis. 

In this context, I understand digital addiction as a broader concept, while smartphone addiction represents a more specific construct. I feel that if I focus only on articles using the term “digital addiction,” I may miss other relevant studies. At the same time, I do not want my PhD research topic to be too narrow. 

Thank you very much for your time and support. I look forward to your guidance. 

P.S. A Scopus search for “digital addiction” yielded 432 articles, whereas a search using various “smartphone addiction” terms yielded more than 8,000 articles. 

Thanks and Regards,

Sajan Sreedharan

DH24SSJ002

Research Scholar

NIT Uttarakhand

Mob: 9995346363