Basic psychological needs satisfaction and smartphone addiction among high school students： the mediating role of loneliness and social anxiety / 四川精神卫生

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the mediating role of loneliness and social anxiety in the relationship between basic psychological needs satisfaction and smartphone addiction among high school students， and to provide references for the intervention to smartphone addiction for high school students. MethodsIn April 2022， a total of 14 666 high school students from 5 middle schools in a county of Sichuan Province were included by random sampling method. Basic Psychological Needs Scales （BPNS）， the UCLA Loneliness Scale-3 edition （UCLA-3）， Interaction Anxiousness Scale （IAS） and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index （MPAI） were used for cross-sectional investigation. Bootstrap method was used to analyze the mediating role of loneliness and social anxiety in the relationship between the basic psychological needs satisfaction and smartphone addiction. Results① In this study， 14 036 valid questionnaires were returned， and 1 752 （12.48%， 95% CI： 0.114~0.136） high school students were found to be addicted to smartphone phone. The BPNS score was negatively correlated with UCLA-3， IAS and MPAI scores （r=-0.771， -0.486， -0.417， P<0.01）. And MPAI score was positively correlated with IAS and UCLA-3 scores （r=0.403， 0.424， P<0.01）. IAS score was positively correlated with UCLA-3 score （r=0.458， P<0.01）. ②The degree of basic psychological needs satisfaction in high school students can directly negatively predict smartphone addiction （β=-0.383， P<0.05）， and can also indirectly affect smartphone addiction through loneliness and social anxiety （β=-0.130， P<0.05）. ③Loneliness （indirect effect value was -0.145） and social anxiety （indirect effect value was -0.074） partially mediate between the basic psychological needs satisfaction and smartphone addiction. Loneliness-social anxiety also has significant chain mediating effect （indirect effect value was -0.034）， which accounted for 8.88%. ConclusionThe basic psychological needs satisfaction can not only directly affect the occurrence of smartphone addiction， but also indirectly affect the occurrence of smartphone addiction through the chain mediation of loneliness and social anxiety.