Effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction on phubbing behavior among high school students: the mediating effect of fear of missing out and mobile phone addiction / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the mediating roles of the fear of missing out and mobile phone addiction between the basic psychological needs satisfaction and phubbing behavior among high school students.Methods:In April 2022, a cross-sectional design survey was conducted on 14 666 high school students. All participants were evaluated by the basic psychological needs scales(BPNS), generic scale of phubbing(GSP), trait-state fear of missing out scale(T-S FOMOS) and mobile phone addiction index(MPAI). The SPSS 26.0 software was used to conduct common method deviation test, descriptive statistics, and correlation analysis.PROCESS 4.1 was used to construct the model, and the Bootstrap method was used to test for mediating effects.Results:(1)Among the 14 036 high school students, there were 1 752 (12.48%) students who were addicted to mobile phones.There were significant differences in gender in the scores including BPNS(boy 4.43±0.79, girl 4.36±0.79), GSP(boy 2.72±1.01, girl 2.76±1.03) and T-S FOMOS(boy 1.73±0.60, girl 1.84±0.64), ( t=5.22, -10.58, -2.78, all P<0.01). Among different grades, there were significant differences in the scores of BPNS, T-S FOMOS, MPAI, and GSP( F=25.43, 39.50, 53.45, 14.59, all P<0.01). (2)Basic psychological needs score were positively correlated with fear of missing out, mobile phone addiction and phubbing( r=-0.432--0.294, all P<0.01). Phubbing were negatively correlated with fear of missing out and mobile phone addiction( r=0.744, 0.538, both P<0.01). Fear of missing out were negatively correlated with mobile phone( r=0.646, P<0.01). (3)The basic psychological needs satisfaction had a direct effect on phubbing behavior, and the effect value was -0.188 (95% CI -0.173--0.204). The mediating effect of fear of missing out between the basic psychological needs satisfaction and phubbing behavior was -0.035(95% CI -0.028--0.042). The mediating effect of mobile phone between the basic psychological needs satisfaction and phubbing behavior was -0.203(95% CI -0.191--0.214). Fear of missing out and mobile phone addiction played a chain mediating role between them, and the mediating effect value was -0.134(95% CI -0.125--0.143), which accounted for 23.93%(-0.134/-0.560) of the total effect. Conclusion:The high level basic psychological needs satisfaction can alleviate the occurrence of phubbing behavior. It may be achieved by decreasing fear of missing out and reducing mobile phone addiction.