Meaning in life and smartphone addiction among Chinese female college students: The mediating role of school adjustment and the moderating role of grade

Zhao, Hao; Rafik-Galea, Shameem; Fitriana, Mimi; Song, Tianjiao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1092893

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…All these strategies could be conducive to reduce the risk of anxiety and SPA [ 58 ]. By contrast, individuals with lower levels of EI would tend to think about the future negatively, feel uncertain about what may happen to them in future, find no meaning in life, and are more likely to escape into smartphone or indulge in others social medias [ 93 ]. Using these new social medias might relieve their negative feelings about future tasks and decisions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smartphone Addiction Among University Students’ During the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Future Anxiety

Zhang

2023

Psychiatry Investig

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Objective Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic-related psychological symptoms can lead to smartphone addiction (SPA) risk and other behavioral disorders, thus impacting individuals’ mental health and well-being. The present study aims to propose a mediation model to investigate the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and SPA, and the mediating role of future anxiety (FA) during the post-COVID-19 era.Methods An online questionnaire including the Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Dark Future Scale, and the Smartphone Addiction Scale among university students from China, was conducted between September 14 and November 22, 2022. Finally, 1,154 valid questionnaires were collected. The reliability and confirmatory factor analysis results showed that all three scales had good reliability and validity.Results Structural Equation Model demonstrated that EI significantly and negatively influenced SPA (β=0.211, p<0.001), university students’ FA significantly and positively effected SPA (β=0.315, p<0.001), EI significantly predicted SPA in university students, and FA partially mediated the association between EI and SPA. The mediation effect of FA was 0.110, which accounted for 34.27% of the total effect. Bootstrap results furthermore tested the rigor of the mediating effect.Conclusion These findings broaden our understanding regarding the relationship between EI and SPA and the mediating role of FA, providing new sights for educators on how to reduce the risk of SPA when confronting the ongoing and possible future pandemics.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smartphone Addiction Among University Students’ During the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Future Anxiety

Zhang

2023

Psychiatry Investig

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“…Contrariwise, if college students lack MIL, they are likely to have school adjustment problems and show depression and negativity. In order to relieve negative emotions and make up for inner emptiness, college students are easily addicted to the “virtual network world” of smartphones ( 32 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, some scholars verified that MIL could indirectly affect college students’ SA through self-control ( 31 ). In addition, a recent research has shown that MIL can indirectly affect college students’ SA through school adjustment ( 32 ). Summarizing the above literature, many scholars have made beneficial investigations on the relationship between MIL and college students’ SA, but these studies only investigated the influence of MIL on college students’ SA, and all the studies were cross-sectional rather than follow-up studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smartphones have the following functional characteristics: (a) collectivity of functions ( 68 , 69 ); (b) personalization and customization of content ( 9 , 54 , 70 ); (c) accessibility ( 2 , 71 ); and (d) convenience ( 2 , 71 ). Some scholars have found that it is precisely because of the above-mentioned functional characteristics of smartphones that female college students use smartphones more frequently in order to make up for the psychological emptiness caused by the low level of MIL and alleviate their negative emotions, thus leading to more serious SA among female college students than male college students ( 32 ). However, few studies have explored the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between college students’ MIL and SA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The reciprocal relationships between meaning in life and smartphone addiction among Chinese college students: evidence from a three-wave cross-lagged panel model

Zhao¹,

Song²,

Rafik-Galea³

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

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BackgroundPrevious cross-sectional studies have shown that meaning in life (MIL) is closely associated with college students’ smartphone addiction (SA), but the causal relationship between MIL and college students’ SA is uncertain. Therefore, conducting a longitudinal study to explore their relationship is very necessary. Furthermore, some studies have implied possible gender differences in the relationship between MIL and SA and the relationship between SA and MIL. Therefore, it is necessary to further examine whether there are gender differences in the above relationships.MethodsThe present study constructed a three-wave cross-lag panel model to explore the relationships between MIL and college students’ SA. Three waves of data were collected from 705 college students (male: 338; female: 367) in China for three consecutive years, and the interval of data collection was 1 year. These college students completed the same online questionnaire regarding MIL and SA.Results(1) The MIL of male college students was significantly stronger than that of female college students at time 1, time 2, and time 3, (2) Female college students’ SA at time 1, time 2, and time 3 was more serious than that of male college students, (3) There were reciprocal relationships between MIL and college students’ SA, (4) The influence of MIL on female college students’ SA was significantly stronger than that of male college students, and (5) The influence of SA on female college students’ MIL was significantly stronger than that of male college students.ConclusionThis study showed reciprocal relationships between MIL and SA among male college students and female college students. The findings further deepen our understanding of the relationship between MIL and SA and provide a gender perspective for preventing or intervening with college students’ SA.

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“…18 Empirical research results also show that since there are inexhaustible videos and games in smart-phones, the individuals with a lower sense of meaning in life are more likely to become addicted to them. 19 Correspondingly, when college students have enhanced their sense of meaning in life, it is expected that their mobile phone addiction can be further mitigated. Based on this, this study proposes hypothesis 3: The sense of meaning in life has a mediating effect on the relationship between mindfulness training and mobile phone addiction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brief Mindfulness Training Mitigates College Students’ Mobile Phone Addiction: The Mediating Effect of the Sense of Meaning in Life

Liu,

Xi,

et al. 2024

PRBM

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Objective To explore the impact of brief mindfulness training on college students’ mobile phone addiction and the mediating effect of the sense of meaning in life between them. Methods This study has employed the mixed experimental design of 2 (experimental conditions) × 2 (time points), randomly assigned 44 college students into a mindfulness training group and a control group (22 college students in each group), and selected the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI), Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS), and Chinese Meaning in Life Questionnaire (C-MLQ) to conduct separate tests before and after mindfulness training. Results The results show that: (1) in the pretest, the differences between the mindfulness training group and the control group in the level of mindfulness, the level of mobile phone addiction, and the sense of meaning in life are not statistically significant; (2) in the posttest, compared with those of the control group, both the FMI score ( p =0.013) and the C-MLQ score ( p <0.001) of the mindfulness training group improve significantly, while the MPATS score ( p =0.008) of the mindfulness training group declines significantly; and (3) the Bootstrap analysis of the mediating effect shows that after the change in C-MLQ (95% CI [0.537, 11.630]) enters the equation, the direct effect of mindfulness training is not significant (95% CI [−3.254, 5.861]). Conclusion The results of this study reveal the impact and mechanism of brief mindfulness training on college students’ mobile phone addiction, and provide an empirical basis for intervening on mobile phone addiction.

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Meaning in life and smartphone addiction among Chinese female college students: The mediating role of school adjustment and the moderating role of grade

Cited by 10 publications

References 88 publications

Smartphone Addiction Among University Students’ During the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Future Anxiety

Smartphone Addiction Among University Students’ During the Post-COVID-19 Era: The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Future Anxiety

The reciprocal relationships between meaning in life and smartphone addiction among Chinese college students: evidence from a three-wave cross-lagged panel model

Brief Mindfulness Training Mitigates College Students’ Mobile Phone Addiction: The Mediating Effect of the Sense of Meaning in Life

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