ArticleFrontiers in public health2022
Escaping negative moods and concentration problems play bridge roles in the symptom network of problematic smartphone use and depression.
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 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Network analysis of emotion regulation and moral injury symptoms among medical staff.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Prevalence and psychosocial correlates of depressive symptom risk among secondary school students in Saudi Arabia: a mixed-methods study.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Depressive symptoms precede and drive problematic smartphone use in Chinese medical students: a longitudinal network analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Associations of psychological distress, gaming motives and internet gaming disorder in adolescents: a network analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The temporal stability of core symptoms of social media addiction and their comorbidity with anxiety and depression in adolescents: a longitudinal network analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Fatigue as a central bridge: temporal dynamics between problematic smartphone use and depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Problematic Smartphone Use Is Associated With Current and Previous Major Depressive Disorder.Psychiatry investigation · 2025Article
- Gender differences in the network of suicidal ideation, interpersonal needs and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- How Anxiety State Influences Speech Parameters: A Network Analysis Study from a Real Stressed Scenario.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Examining the comorbidity network of Internet addiction and depression: the role of effortful control on their bridge symptoms in adolescents.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The effect of negative attention bias on mobile phone addiction in sports majors: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Network analysis of the association between social anxiety and problematic smartphone use in college students.Frontiers in psychiatry · 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 potential causal relationship between various lifestyles and depression: a univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomization study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Unveiling the grip of mobile phone addiction: an in-depth review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Impact of Learning Burnout on Mobile Phone Dependence Among Adolescents in Western China Under the "Double Reduction" Policy: The Mediating Role of Social Support.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has become an issue of great concern in the age of smartphones. PSU is associated with emotional problems, one of which is depression, as shown by empirical studies. However, previous studies have been limited in that they have focused solely on the total score for symptoms of PSU and depression while ignoring the symptomatic heterogeneity of these two concepts. Method: This study filled this gap by exploring links between symptoms of PSU and depression among 1,849 university students (59.17% female participants, 17-23 years old). Network analysis was utilized to reveal symptom connections, central symptoms, and bridge symptoms between PSU and depression. Results: (1) A total of 17 of 81 symptom connections (about 21%) between PSU and depression existed in the symptom network. For example, "self-control failure" for PSU was positively correlated with "concentration problems" for depression; (2) "recklessly continuing" for PSU and "fatigue" for depression were central symptoms within the PSU symptom network and depression symptom network, respectively; (3) "escaping negative moods" for PSU and "concentration problems" for depression were bridge symptoms. The former was maximumly connected with the depression symptoms and the latter was maximumly connected with the PSU symptoms; and (4) gender had very minimal influence on the network characteristics. Conclusion: The results are in keeping with the central idea of the compensatory internet use theory that excessive smartphone use may be a coping strategy for depressed emotions derived from escaping motivation. Moreover, concentration problems may be a mediator explaining how negative emotions (e.g., depression) cause PSU, which is undefined in current internet use theories. Finally, symptom connections, central symptoms, and bridge symptoms could be potential targets for the prevention and intervention of PSU and depression in young adults.
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