Mediating effect of depression in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and self-harm among senior high school students / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the relationship among mobile phone addiction, depression and self-harm in senior high school students.Methods:Totally 707 students were collected from two middle schools by cluster sampling method, and smartphone addiction scale(SAS), patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)and adolescents self-harm scale(ASHS) were used for investigation. SPSS 23.0 software was used for descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and Mplus 8.3 was used to conduct structural equation modeling and Bootstrap mediated effect test.Results:The rate of self-harm was 33.38%.The scores of mobile phone addiction, depression and self-harm were(106.01±27.18), 5.00(1.00, 9.00)and 0(0, 3.00), respectively.Mobile phone addiction was positively correlated with depression and self-harm( r=0.33, 0.16, both P<0.01), and depression was positively correlated with self-harm( r=0.52, P<0.01). Depression played full mediating role in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and self-harm(effect value=0.16, 95% CI=0.12-0.21). Conclusion:This study indicates that depression exerts a mediating effect on the relationship between mobile phone addiction and self-harm.