ReviewFrontiers in psychiatry2022
The Relationship Between Alexithymia and Mobile Phone Addiction Among Mainland Chinese Students: A Meta-Analysis.
Review in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- The associations between smartphone addiction and self-esteem, self-control, and social support among Chinese adolescents: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- From Alexithymia To Internet Addiction: Uncovering Emotional and Developmental Mechanisms.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- Mobile phone addiction as a mediator in the association between alexithymia and self-directed learning among Chinese nursing students: a structural equation modeling analysis.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Depressive and mobile phone addiction symptoms in Chinese adolescents with major depressive disorder: the mediating effect of alexithymia.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The role of psychological flexibility and emotion regulation in the relationship between smartphone addiction and psychological wellbeing in adolescents: three-wave longitudinal serial mediation study.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Article
- The impact of loneliness on alexithymia among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of problematic smartphone use and the moderating effect of fear of negative evaluation.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The relationship between social support and smartphone addiction: the mediating role of negative emotions and self-control.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The impact of physical exercise on mobile phone addiction among college students: a study based on Chinese universities.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Network analysis of depression and anxiety symptoms and their associations with mobile phone addiction among Chinese medical students during the late stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- The effects of mobile phone dependence on athletic performance and its mechanisms.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Influence of family function on social anxiety among Chinese nursing students: The mediating role of alexithymia.Nursing open · 2023Article
- The Association between Alexithymia and Social Media Addiction: Exploring the Role of Dysmorphic Symptoms, Symptoms Interference, and Self-Esteem, Controlling for Age and Gender.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
- Alexithymia and Internet Addiction in Children: Meaning in Life as Mediator and Reciprocal Filial Piety as Moderator.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- The relationship between self-esteem and mobile phone addiction among college students: The chain mediating effects of social avoidance and peer relationships.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Mobile phone addiction and mental health: the roles of sleep quality and perceived social support.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Alexithymia and mobile phone addiction are common phenomena in daily life. Many studies have explored the internal relationship between them based on different theoretical perspectives, but the extent of the exact correlation is still controversial. To address this controversy and clarify the reasons for the divergence, a meta-analysis of 26 articles comprising 23,387 Chinese students was conducted. The results show that alexithymia was highly positively correlated with mobile phone addiction (r = 0.41, 95% CI = [0.37, 0.45]). Furthermore, the relationship was moderated by mobile phone addiction measurement tool and year of publication, with studies using the Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS) having higher correlation coefficients than those using the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI) or other measurement tools. Studies published in 2020-2021 yielded higher correlations than those published in 2014-2016 and 2017-2019. However, the relationship was not moderated by gender, region, or measures of alexithymia. Therefore, our meta-analysis of available published data indicated that alexithymia and mobile phone addiction in Chinese students are not only highly positively correlated but also affected by mobile phone addiction measurement tools and publication year. Longitudinal studies or experimental studies should be strengthened in the future to further establish the direction(s) of causality for the relation between alexithymia and mobile phone addiction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.