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How does self-esteem affect mobile phone addiction? The mediating role of social anxiety and interpersonal
Zhiqi You1, Yingru Zhang2, Lu Zhang2
1Department of Social Work, Huazhong Agricultural University, China; Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan, China.
Abstract:
Low self-esteem is an important factor influencing mobile phone addiction, which has been well documented. However, little research focused on the mechanism underlying the association between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction. We hypothesized that social anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity may mediate the relationship between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction. Six hundred and fifty three (353 girls among them) college students with the mean age of 19.94 (SD = 1.34) were recruited for the study. Participants completed mobile phone addiction scale, Rosenberg self-esteem scale, the social anxiety questionnaire and interpersonal sensitivity subscale of SCL-90. The findings were as follows: 1) interpersonal sensitivity mediated the relation between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction. 2) social anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity sequentially mediated the relation between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction. The result reveals that self-esteem has indirect effect on mobile phone addiction, which is mediated by social anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity.
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