Profiles of Smartphone Addiction Risk Among Middle School Students: The Roles of Childhood Neglect and Materialism...

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Adolescent Health
• Digital Well-being

Background:

• Mobile phone addiction is a growing concern among adolescents.
• Understanding the heterogeneity of addiction risk is crucial for effective interventions.
• Previous research has not fully explored the structural relationships between addiction, materialism, and childhood neglect.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine latent heterogeneity and structural characteristics of mobile phone addiction risk in Chinese junior high school students.
• To identify distinct subgroups based on addiction risk levels.
• To investigate the network structures of smartphone addiction, materialism, and childhood neglect across these subgroups.

Main Methods:

• Latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify risk subgroups.
• Network analysis to model relationships among key variables.
• Machine learning models to predict smartphone addiction scores.

Main Results:

• Three distinct mobile phone addiction risk profiles were identified.
• Loneliness and childhood neglect emerged as central factors in addiction networks.
• Significant structural differences in addiction networks were observed across risk profiles.
• Machine learning models incorporating profile and centrality data showed improved prediction accuracy.

Conclusions:

• Mobile phone addiction risk is heterogeneous, with distinct structural characteristics.
• Childhood neglect plays a central role across different risk profiles.
• Subgroup-specific interventions are necessary for addressing adolescent mobile phone addiction.