Balance Filter
A standing self-regulation strategy for keeping AI use proportionate to non-digital activity through fixed times, rules, or routines, so that AI supplements rather than overtakes daily life. The referent is the maintained regulatory arrangement, not a single instance of restraint.
Operational Definition
STATE. Coded as present when a participant maintains one or more explicit, durable rules or routines that bound AI use relative to non-digital activity (e.g. fixed AI-free hours, capped daily sessions, mandatory offline routines). The state is graded by the number of active rules and the degree of adherence to them.
Measurement Schema
Proposed measurement protocol (not yet empirically validated): Self-regulation inventory with adherence tracking: declared balancing rules are enumerated in interview, then adherence would be measured over a one- to two-week diary or experience-sampling period as the proportion of qualifying occasions on which each rule was kept. Could be reported as number of active rules and mean adherence rate; an optional validated self-control or digital-balance scale (Likert) provides a convergent dispositional measure. Coder rule-type agreement would be assessed via Cohen's kappa.