Smartphone Addiction and Nursing Students' Learning Engagement: Insomnia and Self-Control Mediation

Nursing education emphasizes theory, skills, and literacy, but nursing students have insufficient learning engagement. Smartphone addiction may affect learning engagement via psychological mechanisms, and pathways of action need to be explored.

A cross-sectional research design was used, and the study population was undergraduate nursing students. Data were collected through the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students, Athens Insomnia Scale, and State Self-Control Capacity Scale. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the mediating mechanisms.

Smartphone addiction was significantly negatively correlated with learning engagement (r = -.428, p < .001); insomnia (β = -0.145) and self-control (β = 0.232) acted as independent mediators between the two, with a chain mediating effect also present (β = -0.03, p < .001).

The chain mediation of insomnia and self-control explains how smartphone addiction impairs learning engagement, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to enhance nursing education quality.