Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Mobile Phone Dependence, and Academic Boredom in Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has threatened adolescents’ mental health and even elicited their academic problems. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most common negative psychological reactions, and academic boredom is a typical academic problem to the pandemic. PTSD might be related to academic boredom, but the underlying mechanism of this potential relation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unclear.Aims: Under the framework of the job demands–resources model and the model of compensatory internet use, this study aims to examine the mediating role of mobile phone dependency in the relation between PTSD and academic boredom.Methods: Six hundred and thirty-one middle school students in Hubei Province were investigated using self-report questionnaires. SPSS19.0 and Mplus7.0 were used for data analysis.Results: PTSD symptoms were associated positively with academic boredom, and mobile phone dependence played a mediating role in the relation between PTSD and academic boredom. Specifically, adolescents with severe PTSD symptoms tended to report greater dependency on mobile phones, and hence show higher levels of boredom in learning.Conclusion: PTSD symptoms of adolescents directly aggravated their academic boredom, and indirectly affected academic boredom by increasing their dependence on mobile phones.

The more academic burnout students got, the more problematic mobile phone use they suffered? A meta-analysis of mainland Chinese adolescents and young adults

“…The results of the meta-analysis showed that there was a moderate positive association between AB and PMPU. The higher the AB, the higher the risk of PMPU, which is consistent with previous research ( Qu et al, 2017 ; Shen et al, 2021 ). It supports the compensatory Internet use theory.…”

“…In addition, some scholars have conducted related research from individual psychology, such as exploring the relationship between Academic Burnout (AB) and PMPU. AB, also known as academic boredom, learning burnout and student burnout ( Olwage and Mostert, 2014 ; Feng et al, 2019 ; Shen et al, 2021 ). “AB” means the negative attitude and behavior of feeling bored with learning due to pressure or lack of interest in learning ( Mao et al, 2015 ), mainly appeared as emotional exhaustion, cynicism and academic inefficiency ( Kendall and Castro-Alves, 2018 ; Aguayo et al, 2019 ; Hao et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Scholars have conducted many studies on the relationship between AB and PMPU. Among them, some scholars believe that AB can positively predict PMPU, and there is a significant positive correlation between AB and PMPU ( Shen et al, 2021 ; Hao et al, 2022 ). If students are in the state of AB for a long time, they will have mental health problems such as anxiety and depression ( Cheng et al, 2020 ; Fiorilli et al, 2020 ), decrease of sleep quality ( Yan et al, 2018 ), poor academic performance ( Yune et al, 2018 ).…”

Student's Mobile Phone Habitual Behaviour for Academic Purposes: Empirical Evidence From A Higher Learning Institute in Malaysia

“…Nonetheless, despite its potential benefits, the use of mobile phones in academic contexts raises concerns about potential negative consequences on learning. Previous research has shown that phone usage during lectures and study sessions has a negative influence on academic performance (Shen et al, 2021;Tian et al, 2021). Moreover, overuse of mobile devices in education settings has been found to have a negative impact on students' academic performance, as it could hamper their ability to retain material presented during instructional sessions (Fook & Narasuman, 2022).…”

Using a Virtual Patient via an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot to Develop Dental Students’ Diagnostic Skills

“…In recent years, it has been observed how young people invest less time in learning and more in the use of their cell phone [ 26 ]. In this context, chatbots or conversational agents through an instant messaging service are presented in the literature as an application of the emerging field of AI [ 27 ] that could attract the attention of students and, therefore, be an interesting alternative in the development of VPs [ 6 , 28 , 29 ].…”