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Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is a novel manifestation of addictive behaviors. It is frequently reported to be correlated with anxiety symptoms among University students. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been thoroughly studied. Whether the association between anxiety symptoms and PS...

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Autores principales: Li, Ying, Li, Guang-Xiao, Yu, Ming-Li, Liu, Chun-Li, Qu, Yun-Ting, Wu, Hui
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33716808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.581367
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author Li, Ying
Li, Guang-Xiao
Yu, Ming-Li
Liu, Chun-Li
Qu, Yun-Ting
Wu, Hui
author_facet Li, Ying
Li, Guang-Xiao
Yu, Ming-Li
Liu, Chun-Li
Qu, Yun-Ting
Wu, Hui
author_sort Li, Ying
collection PubMed
description Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is a novel manifestation of addictive behaviors. It is frequently reported to be correlated with anxiety symptoms among University students. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been thoroughly studied. Whether the association between anxiety symptoms and PSU is mediated or moderated by self-efficacy remains unclarified. A cluster sampling cross-sectional study was thus conducted to explore the potential mediating or moderating effect of self-efficacy in Chinese University students. Participants (N = 1,113) were recruited from eight Universities in Shenyang, China. Of them, 146 did not effectively respond to the questionnaires. Thus, 967 participants were eligible for the final analysis. The mediating or moderating role of self-efficacy in the anxiety-PSU relationship was explored using hierarchical multiple regression. Then the mediation model was further verified using the SPSS macros program (PROCESS v3.0). Our results showed that anxiety symptoms was positively correlated with PSU (r = 0.302, P < 0.01), while self-efficacy was negatively correlated with anxiety symptoms and PSU (r = −0.271 and −0.181, P < 0.01). Self-efficacy partly mediated the relationship between anxiety symptoms and PSU, which accounted for ~17.5% of the total effect that anxiety symptoms have on PSU. However, the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the anxiety-PSU relationship was insignificant. In summary, our findings suggested that self-efficacy partly mediates but not moderates the link between anxiety symptoms and PSU among Chinese University students. Therefore, multicomponent interventions should be made to restrict the frequency of smartphone usage, enhance the level of self-efficacy, and thus promote the mental health status of University students.
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spelling pubmed-79438402021-03-11 Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy Li, Ying Li, Guang-Xiao Yu, Ming-Li Liu, Chun-Li Qu, Yun-Ting Wu, Hui Front Psychiatry Psychiatry Problematic smartphone use (PSU) is a novel manifestation of addictive behaviors. It is frequently reported to be correlated with anxiety symptoms among University students. However, the underlying mechanism has not yet been thoroughly studied. Whether the association between anxiety symptoms and PSU is mediated or moderated by self-efficacy remains unclarified. A cluster sampling cross-sectional study was thus conducted to explore the potential mediating or moderating effect of self-efficacy in Chinese University students. Participants (N = 1,113) were recruited from eight Universities in Shenyang, China. Of them, 146 did not effectively respond to the questionnaires. Thus, 967 participants were eligible for the final analysis. The mediating or moderating role of self-efficacy in the anxiety-PSU relationship was explored using hierarchical multiple regression. Then the mediation model was further verified using the SPSS macros program (PROCESS v3.0). Our results showed that anxiety symptoms was positively correlated with PSU (r = 0.302, P < 0.01), while self-efficacy was negatively correlated with anxiety symptoms and PSU (r = −0.271 and −0.181, P < 0.01). Self-efficacy partly mediated the relationship between anxiety symptoms and PSU, which accounted for ~17.5% of the total effect that anxiety symptoms have on PSU. However, the moderating effect of self-efficacy on the anxiety-PSU relationship was insignificant. In summary, our findings suggested that self-efficacy partly mediates but not moderates the link between anxiety symptoms and PSU among Chinese University students. Therefore, multicomponent interventions should be made to restrict the frequency of smartphone usage, enhance the level of self-efficacy, and thus promote the mental health status of University students. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7943840/ /pubmed/33716808 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.581367 Text en Copyright © 2021 Li, Li, Yu, Liu, Qu and Wu. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychiatry
Li, Ying
Li, Guang-Xiao
Yu, Ming-Li
Liu, Chun-Li
Qu, Yun-Ting
Wu, Hui
Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title_full Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title_fullStr Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title_full_unstemmed Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title_short Association Between Anxiety Symptoms and Problematic Smartphone Use Among Chinese University Students: The Mediating/Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy
title_sort association between anxiety symptoms and problematic smartphone use among chinese university students: the mediating/moderating role of self-efficacy
topic Psychiatry
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943840/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33716808
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.581367
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