Suicidal Ideation Is Associated With Excessive Smartphone Use Among Chinese College Students

Abstract

BackgroundSuicidal ideation is the first step and a strong predictor of suicide. College students are at a considerably high risk of suicidal ideation, and smartphones are commonly used in this group. However, the relationship between suicidal ideation and smartphone use among Chinese college students is unclear. The current study aimed to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation among Chinese college students and its association with smartphone use and addiction factors.MethodsA total of 439 college students participated the survey. We collected the demographic information, physical health, psychosocial factors (depressive symptoms, social support, sleep quality), characteristics of smartphone use, and mobile phone addiction (MPA). Suicidal ideation was measured with a single question, “did you feel that life was not worth living in the past 1 year?”ResultsThe prevalence of suicidal ideation (“Yes” response) in the past year among Chinese college students was 7.5%. In binary logistic regression analysis, suicidal ideation was significantly correlated with less subjective social support (OR: 2.49, p = 0.049), lower utilization of social support (OR: 13.28, p = 0.012), more depressive symptoms (OR:4.96, p = 0.005), and more than 5 h of daily smartphone use (OR: 2.60, p = 0.025).ConclusionConsidering the widely use of smartphones in Chinese colleges and the correlation with suicidal ideation, excessive phone use among college students should be given more attention by administrators and health workers. It is necessary to obtain more information about the intention of smartphone use, make full use of smartphones for health education, and monitor excessive use of smartphones, while improving social support and coping mechanisms for depression, to identify suicidal ideation and prevent suicidal behavior among Chinese college students.

Investigation on Depression of College Students Majoring in Physical Education and Nonphysical Education: A StudyBased on the Age Region and Gender of 374 Students

“…College students with depression usually felt hopeless and helpless [7], and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were recognized as long-distance risks of depression in adulthood [8,9]; smartphone addiction [10,11] and epidemic [12,13]are also important causes of depression among college students, depression and race of college students [14], gender [15], and professional [16,17].…”

Problematic Smartphone Use Mediates the Pathway from Suicidal Ideation to Positive Psychotic Experiences: a Large Cross-Sectional, Population-Based Study

“…In terms of the indirect effect, we could find only one previous study that have built on Murphy’s findings, and demonstrated that depressive symptoms partially mediated the path leading from SI to PEs among Chilean high-school adolescents (Nunez et al, 2020 ). As for PSU, research has shown that healthy young individuals who report general feeling of poor health, and more particularly greater SI, are more likely to overuse their smartphones (Huang et al, 2021 ; Kim et al, 2019 ), and be more active on social media than other users (Wang et al, 2019 ). Besides, digital media use has gained increased attention as the current era’s environmental risk factor for PEs in healthy young adults (Fekih-Romdhane, Sassi, et al, 2021 ; Lee et al, 2019 ; McMahon et al, 2021 ; Mittal et al, 2013 ).…”

“…For example, a Chinese study found that people with SI were significantly more active on social media compared to other users (Wang et al, 2019 ). Another Chinese study showed that college students with SI in the past year had 2.6-fold increased risk of PSU, reported more than 5 h of current daily smartphone use, and more severe smartphone addiction symptoms (i.e., inability to control craving) (Huang et al, 2021 ). Similarly, a Korean study revealed that college students exhibiting SI had around 2-fold increased risk of smartphone overuse than their counterparts without SI (Kim et al, 2019 ).…”

A cross-sectional survey of material deprivation and suicide-related ideation among Vietnamese technical interns in Japan in 2021

“…One theory is that prolonged use of cellphones promotes isolation among young people, leading to suicidal ideation. [36,37] Another theory is that cellphones have reduced isolation and improved mental health among young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies supporting the latter theory include a 2022 survey of Japanese university students revealing that smartphone use reduced the risk of is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in (which was not certified by peer review) preprint…”