The relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction: Testing mediation and moderation effects

BACKGROUND: To explore the relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction as well as the mediating effects of mental health and the moderating role of being a single child or not. METHODS: A total of 1034 college students from Changchun were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI). RESULTS: Alexithymia was positively correlated with mental health and mobile phone addiction. Alexithymia had not only a direct impact on mobile phone addiction but also an indirect impact via mental health. For college students who were not only children, higher levels of alexithymia led to an increase in mobile phone addiction, whereas the influence of alexithymia on mobile phone addiction was much weaker among only children. CONCLUSION: Mental health has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between alexithymia and mobile phone addiction, and the relationship was significantly moderated by whether students were only children or not.