Depression and Loneliness as Mediators Between Social Support and Mobile Phone Addiction

Mobile phone addiction among adolescents has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Previous researches revealed a significant relation between low social support and addiction. This study aim to investigated the association between social support and mobile phone addiction, and the mediating effects of depression and loneliness.

A total of 1,400 Chinese adolescents aged from 12 to 23 years old was recruited from two middle schools and a college in Hunan Province, China. Participates were selected using the cluster random sampling method. They completed the Mobile Phone Addiction Index, the Self-Rating Depression Scale, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Adolescent Social Support Scale. The study analyzed the correlations between the study variables and the mediating role of depression and loneliness in the relationship between social support and mobile phone addiction.

There were significant negative correlation between social support and depression, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction (p<0.001). Both depression and loneliness demonstrated significant positive correlation with mobile phone addiction (p<0.001). Structural equation modeling revealed that both depression and loneliness mediated the association between social support and mobile phone addiction (p<0.001). Depression and loneliness sequentially mediated the association between social support and mobile phone addiction (p<0.001). However, the relation between social support and mobile phone addiction was not significant (p>0.05).

Social support can lower levels of mobile phone addiction among adolescents by reducing depression and loneliness. This study sheds light on the underlying mechanisms between social support and mobile phone addiction, which has profound implications for the prevention and interventions of adolescent problematic mobile phone use.