ArticleFrontiers in public health2022
Mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese University students: The mediating role of sleep disturbances and the moderating role of gender.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Different Sports on Reducing Mobile Phone Addiction: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.Addiction biology · 2025Pooled it
- Differences in Internalizing Problems Across Risk Groups of Smartphone Addiction: Simulation-Based Network Analysis of Intervention Targets.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations among problematic smartphone use, depression, and sleep disturbance in Chinese college students: a three-wave longitudinal study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Review
- Smartphone addiction and self-esteem among university students: a moderated mediation and latent profile analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The dynamic association between depression, psychological flexibility, and meaning in life among medical students: a cross-lagged analysis.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Exploring the relationship between boredom proneness and short-form videos addiction among Chinese college students through a moderated mediation model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Association Between Presleep and Postwake Mobile Phone Use and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Among University Students: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Depressive and mobile phone addiction symptoms in Chinese adolescents with major depressive disorder: the mediating effect of alexithymia.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- The association between problematic smartphone use and subjective well-being in Bangladeshi youths: Mediating role of sleep quality.Addictive behaviors reports · 2025Article
- The mediating role of sleep disturbances in mobile phone addiction and depression among medical students.Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- Article
- Internet gaming disorder and depression mediated by impaired resilience and sleep distress: a three-wave longitudinal study among Chinese adolescents.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2025Article
- The relationship between problematic mobile phone use and meaning in life among adolescents: a latent profile analyses.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Smartphones through children's eyes: perceived benefits and educational considerations.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Mobile Phone Addiction, Interaction Anxiousness, and Eating Behavior in Nursing Students: A Moderation Analysis.Journal of nursing management · 2025Article
- The relationship between smartphone addiction and sleep disorder among college students: negative emotions as a mediator and gender as a moderator.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Understanding the complex network of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and smartphone addiction among college art students using network analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The impact of smartphone addiction on mental health and its relationship with life satisfaction in the post-COVID-19 era.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: With the continuous updating of mobile phone functions, the phenomenon of mobile phone addiction among University students is becoming more and more serious. It is important to identify the potential risk factors for mobile phone addiction. The aim of the study was to examine whether there is a relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression symptoms in University students, and to investigate whether sleep disturbances play a mediating role between mobile phone addiction and depression symptoms, as well as the moderating role of gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study, carried out between September to December 2021, recruited 973 students (478 males) from seven comprehensive universities in western China. The Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were used to complete measures of mobile phone addiction, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbances. For statistical analyses, descriptive statistics, correlation, regression, mediation and moderated mediation analyses were used. Furthermore, we tested the mediation model and moderated mediation model using the SPSS macro PROCESS. Results: In this study, it was found that there were positive correlations between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese University students. Mediation analyses revealed that this relationship was partially mediated by sleep disturbances, but the mediating role was not moderated by gender. Conclusion: Sleep disturbances have a partial mediating role in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms. Our results highlight the critical role of prevention and early identification of mobile phone addiction among University students, especially those with sleep disturbances.
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