Perceived Social Support, Depressive Symptoms, Self-Compassion, and Mobile Phone Addiction: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between perceived social support and mobile phone addiction, as well as the mediating effect of depressive symptoms and the moderating effect of self-compassion. Methods: A total of 874 college students completed questionnaires, including the perceived social support scale, depression–anxiety–stress scale, mobile phone addiction index, and the short form of the self-compassion scale. The participants included 202 males and 672 females, with an average age of 19.54 (SD = 2.16). Results: A moderated mediation analysis was conducted. The results revealed that perceived social support fully mediated the negative relationship between perceived social support and mobile phone addiction. Self-compassion attenuated the mediating effects. Conclusions: The present study indicated that insufficient perceived social support may increase the risk of mobile phone addiction among college students because of the impact of depressive symptoms. However, self-compassion could buffer this adverse effect.