Relationship between insecure attachment and mobile phone addiction: A meta-analysis

Leisure experience and mobile phone addiction: Evidence from Chinese adolescents

Background

During the Covid-19 pandemic, online learning became the mainstream because of many restrictions on interpersonal relationships. Children spent more and more time using mobile phones, which also aroused public concern.In past research on the prevention of problematic mobile phone use, it was easy to neglect meaningful part of leisure. Hence, based on Davis's cognitive-behavioral model, this study was designed to verify how leisure experience influences mobile phone addiction through maladaptive cognition, which received little attention before.

Methods

By convenient sampling method, it involved a sample of 1007 middle school students recruited from Northern China. We used adolescent leisure experience questionnaire, maladaptive cognition scale and mobile phone addiction scale to measure adolescents' leisure experience, maladaptive cognition and mobile phone addiction respectively.

Results

The findings revealed that leisure experience was negatively correlated with maladaptive cognition (r = -0.21, p < 0.01) and mobile phone addiction (r = -0.20, p < 0.01) respectively. Maladaptive cognition was positively correlated with mobile phone addiction (r = 0.51, p < 0.01). Given gender, age and family economic conditions, the negative predictive effect of leisure experience on mobile phone addiction was significant (β = -0.18，p < 0.001). Besides, the process by which leisure experience predicted mobile phone addiction through maladaptive cognition was significant, indirect effect = -0.10, SE = 0.02, 95 % CI = [-0.13, -0.07].

Conclusions

Adolescents' great leisure experience has a positive impact on mobile phone addiction, which can be achieved by reducing maladaptive cognition. Therefore，it is significant to improve their leisure experience and guide them to perceive their irrational beliefs in leisure and rethink offline leisure and real life from more positive views.

Problematic Smartphone Use and Social Media Fatigue: The Mediating Role of Self-Control

Background

Excessive social media consumption leads to addiction and affects mental health. It is a phenomenon that is difficult to avoid. Previous research on the effects of excessive Internet use shows that people who engage in social media (SM) without restraint experience over-involvement, over-disclosure, technostress, and social media fatigue (SMF). SMF, conceptualized as an emotional and cognitive feeling of being overwhelmed, manifests itself in mindless browsing of content, limiting the amount of time spent on SM, or quitting SM altogether. Self-control, although present in the technology addiction literature and psychology research, has been rarely described in relation to both excessive SM use and SMF. Therefore, the main goal of the present study was to verify whether there is a direct relationship between problematic smartphone use and SMF, and whether this association is mediated by self-control.

Methods

The study included 210 respondents (M = 25.85, SD = 9.84) living in different Polish cities. The survey was conducted online, and the respondents consented to participate in the study. They completed the following measures: the Mobile Phone Problematic Use, the Self-Control Scale, the Social Media Fatigue Scale, and a brief questionnaire with socio-demographic data.

Results

Statistical analysis was performed to verify the relationship between problematic mobile phone use, level of self-control, and SMF. The outcomes indicate that there are significant interrelationships between the three studied variables. The association between problematic smartphone use and SMF is mediated by self-control.

Conclusion

A lack of impulse-inhibition skills, such as compulsive checking of notifications, can be a significant factor in SM exhaustion, fatigue, or frustration. SMF can also be understood as a natural defensive response, triggered in situations where individuals are overwhelmed, when the self-control is insufficient to stop the compulsion to use SM, and the use of a smartphone for this purpose is excessively engaging.

The associations between smartphone addiction and self-esteem, self-control, and social support among Chinese adolescents: A meta-analysis

Background

Smartphone addiction has become a social problem that affects the healthy growth of adolescents, and it is frequently reported to be correlated with self-esteem, self-control, and social support among adolescents.

Methods

A meta-analysis was conducted by searching the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WANFANG DATA, and Chongqing VIP Information Co., Ltd. (VIP) databases. Stata 16.0 was used to analyse the overall effect and test the moderating effect.

Results

Fifty-six studies were included, involving a total of 42,300 participants. Adolescents' smartphone addiction had a moderately negative correlation with self-esteem (r = -0.25, 95% CI = -0.29 to -0.22, p < 0.001), a strong negative correlation with self-control (r = -0.48, 95% CI = -0.53 to -0.42, p < 0.001), and a weak negative correlation with social support (r = -0.16, 95% CI = -0.23 to -0.09, p < 0.001). Moderation analysis revealed that the correlation between adolescents' smartphone addiction and self-esteem was strongest when smartphone addiction was measured with the Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale for College Students (MPATS; r = -0.38). The correlation between adolescents' smartphone addiction and self-control was strongest when self-control was measured with the Middle school students' Self-control Ability Questionnaire (MSAQ; r = -0.62). The effect of dissertations on smartphone addiction, self-control, and social support among adolescents was significantly larger than that of journal articles. The correlation between adolescents' smartphone addiction and social support was strongest when smartphone addiction was measured with the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI; r = -0.24). However, the correlations between adolescents' smartphone addiction and self-esteem, self-control, and social support were not affected by age or gender.

Conclusion

There was a strong relationship between smartphone addiction and self-esteem, self-control, and social support among adolescents. In the future, longitudinal research should be carried out to better investigate the dynamic changes in therelationship between smartphone addiction and self-esteem, self-control, and social support.

Systematic review registration

https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, identifier: CRD42022300061.