ArticlePloS one2023
The relationship between loneliness and mobile phone addiction among Chinese college students: The mediating role of anthropomorphism and moderating role of family support.
Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perceived stress and mobile phone addiction among Chinese undergraduate nursing students: the mediating role of organizational caring climate and self-control.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Positive emotional responses to anthropomorphic virtual learning assistants among university students with different levels of loneliness.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Decisional procrastination and problematic mobile phone use: the mediation of anxiety and the moderation of 2019-nCoV traumatic experience.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- College students' loneliness and mobile phone addiction: mediating role of mobile phone anthropomorphism and moderating role of interpersonal relationship quality.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The prevalence of nomophobia in Cyprus and its relationship with coping styles.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Exploring the Intrinsic Association Between Perceived Social Support and Depressive Symptoms and Problematic Phone Use Among College Students Based on Network Analysis.Psychology research and behavior management · 2025Article
- The relationship between shyness, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction in Chinese university students: a cross-lagged analysis.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 social support and smartphone addiction among Chinese college students: the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating role of meaning in life.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Smartphone dependence and its influence on physical and mental health.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Social anxiety, loneliness, and mobile phone addiction among nursing students: latent profile and moderated mediation analyses.BMC nursing · 2024Article
- The effect of social anxiety on teenagers' internet addiction: the mediating role of loneliness and coping styles.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Influence of physical education on anxiety, depression, and self-esteem among college students.World journal of psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLoneliness and mobile phone addiction are common phenomena in our daily life that can lead to physical and psychological maladaptation. Although loneliness has been considered to be correlated with adolescents' mobile phone addiction, the underlying mechanisms of the relation between loneliness and mobile phone addiction are still unclear. In order to address the problem of mobile phone addiction among adolescents, the association of loneliness with mobile phone addiction was explored from the perspective of Compensatory Internet Use Theory. The mediating role of anthropomorphism and the moderating role of family support were examined.
methodsData were collected through convenience sampling from a comprehensive university in China. A total of 582 Chinese college students (279 men and 303 women), aged from 17 to 24 (Mage = 20.22 years, SD = 1.46), participated in this study. Their loneliness, anthropomorphism, family support and mobile phone addiction were measured using well-validated self-report questionnaires. Regression-based statistical mediation and moderation were conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.
resultsLoneliness was significantly and positively associated with mobile phone addiction, and this link could be mediated by anthropomorphism. Moreover, the direct effect of loneliness on mobile phone addiction and the indirect effect of anthropomorphism in this link were moderated by family support. Both these two effects were stronger for college students with lower family support.
conclusionThe present study broadened our knowledge of the underlying mechanisms between loneliness and mobile phone addiction. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the impact loneliness can have on mobile phone addiction as well as its paths. Moreover, the results can also provide advice for parents and constructive suggestions for rationalizing college students' mobile phone use in the mobile Internet era. Educational professionals and parents should pay special attention to the problem of mobile phone addiction among lonely adolescents, especially for those with low family support.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.