Peer Phubbing and Chinese College Students’ Smartphone Addiction During COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Boredom Proneness and the Moderating Role of Refusal Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Purpose: COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the physical behavior and mental health of people. Long-term and strict isolation policies are widely used to ensure social distancing, which may cause excessive smartphone use and increase the risk of smartphone addiction. Previous researchers have identified that some factors that affect smartphone addiction, but there was little research conducted during COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to examine the effect of peer phubbing on smartphone addiction, how boredom proneness may mediate this effect, and lastly how refusal self-efficacy may moderate the indirect and direct pathways during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A total of 1396 college students (mean age=20.48, SD=1.08) were surveyed and completed four scales (Peer Phubbing Scale, Refusal Self-efficacy Scale, Smartphone Addiction Index Scale, Boredom Proneness Scale). The statistical analyses were conducted by SPSS 22.0 and SPSS PROCESS macro. Results: This study found that peer phubbing was positively associated with smartphone addiction. Boredom proneness mediated the effect of peer phubbing and smartphone addiction. Furthermore, refusal self-efficacy moderated the relationship between peer phubbing and smartphone addiction as well as boredom proneness and smartphone addiction. Specifically, peer phubbing had a greater impact on smartphone addiction for college students with higher levels of refusal self-efficacy, and the boredom proneness on smartphone addiction was stronger for college students with low levels of refusal self-efficacy. Conclusion:This study is important in investigating how peer phubbing is related to the smartphone addiction of Chinese college students during COVID-19 pandemic. The results suggest that college students' boredom proneness and refusal self-efficacy may be prime targets for prevention and intervention programs. Thus, this study explored "how" and "when" peer phubbing may enhance college students' smartphone addiction during COVID-19 pandemic.

Effects of Stressors of COVID-19 on Chinese College Students' Problematic Social Media Use: A Mediated Moderation Model

“…The association between environmental risk factors and problem behaviors would be reduced by individual attributes such as regulatory emotional self-efficacy, in line with the "risk buffering hypothesis" (62)(63)(64). The hypothesis proposed that protective factors may mitigate the negative consequences of risk factors.…”

“…During the epidemic, effects of the absence of specific drugs for COVID-19 and the reduction in social interaction due to keeping a social distance ( 4 ) predispose individuals to develop negative emotions ( 26 ). As epidemic prevention measures were strictly enforced, access to social interactions decreased and mobile phone use increased ( 64 ), with the consequently increased availability of mobile social media use ( 16 , 44 ). Through the use of social media, individuals were able to obtain positive social feedback and momentarily forget about negative emotions ( 21 , 88 ).…”

“…The hypothesis proposed that in the presence of a high-risk factor, the preventive effects of the protective factor are diminished. Researchers have sufficiently supported the protective-limiting hypothesis in explaining the moderating effect ( 64 , 103 – 105 ).…”

COVID-19 Victimization Experience and College Students’ Mobile Phone Addiction: A Moderated Mediation Effect of Future Anxiety and Mindfulness

“…Currently, several studies have identified factors causing mobile phone addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, household financial decline due to COVID-19, peer phubbing, interpersonal alienation, loneliness, escape motivation, perceived stress, and social cynicism have been reported to be significant positive predictors of mobile phone addiction [23][24][25][26][27][28]. Kayis et al [10] conducted a questionnaire survey among 773 adults and determined that the fear of COVID-19 had a significant positive predictive effect on mobile phone addiction.…”

The Mediating Role of Loneliness and the Moderating Role of Gender between Peer Phubbing and Adolescent Mobile Social Media Addiction

“…Peer relationships have a critical impact on adolescent mobile phone addiction [ 9 ]. Peer phubbing refers to the state that individuals feel ignored by peers because their peers pay more attention to mobile phones [ 11 ]. Peer phubbing is a typical manifestation of phubbing in peer interactions.…”