ArticleFrontiers in public health2025
Smartphone addiction and sleep quality in the physical activity-anxiety link: a mediation-moderation model.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Smartphone Addiction and Health Indicators in Portuguese University Students: The Moderating Role of Physical Activity.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prediction of Smartphone Addiction Among Korean Adolescents Based on Physical Activity and Mental Health: A Machine Learning Analysis Using LASSO and SHAP From the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Article
- How does social media addiction make you fear exercise? The relationship between social media addiction and kinesiophobia among college students: the mediating role of social physique anxiety.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Physical activity motivation is inversely associated with anxiety: a cross-sectional serial mediation analysis involving smartphone addiction symptoms and sleep quality in medical undergraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Smartphone addiction and learning engagement: a parallel mediation model of time management disposition and academic burnout among nursing undergraduates.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The mediating role of college student psychological resilience in the relationship between wisdom and psychotic-like experiences.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Examining the multiple mediation effects of creative personality and self-esteem on the relationship between exercise and smartphone dependence in adolescents.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Anxiety symptoms are common among university students in China, posing challenges to mental health. Physical activity may reduce anxiety, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. This study examines how smartphone addiction acts as a mediator and sleep quality as a moderator in the relationship between physical activity and anxiety, aiming to offer theoretical insights and practical strategies for mental health interventions. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2023 at Guangxi University. A stratified sampling method was used to approach 719 students from diverse physical education classes to distribute questionnaires, and 527 valid questionnaires were returned. Validated instruments included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS). Data analysis involved standardization, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, normality testing, mediation and moderation analyses, and Bootstrap validation. Results: (1) Physical activity was negatively correlated with smartphone addiction ( Conclusion: This study revealed a more complex relationship between physical activity and anxiety than initially hypothesized. Our findings further revealed the relationship between physical activity and university students' anxiety, and considered the mediating role of smartphone addiction between the two, as well as the moderating role of sleep quality in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and university students' anxiety.
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