Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40402603›Full record

ArticleJournal of behavioral addictions2025

The bidirectional associations between smartphone multitasking and anxiety symptoms among Chinese college students.

Meng Wang, Renjie Li, Yang Xie, Yuhui Wan, Xiaoyan Wu, Fangbiao Tao, Shuman Tao

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of behavioral addictions, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Meng Wang1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0009-0007-5752-3493
Renjie Li1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0000-0001-6585-6502
Yang Xie1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0000-0002-6767-9244
Yuhui Wan1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0000-0002-2353-2638
Xiaoyan Wu1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0009-0003-7802-9882
Fangbiao Tao1Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China.ORCID 0000-0003-4807-9670
Shuman Tao2Department of Ophthalmology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China.ORCID 0000-0002-3582-7062

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background and Aims: To analyze the bidirectional associations between smartphone multitasking and anxiety symptoms among college students. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted from October 2021 to May 2022. Smartphone multitasking and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Assessment of Smartphone Multitasking for Adolescents and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 items, respectively. Linear regression models were used to analyze the associations between smartphone multitasking and anxiety symptoms among college students. Autoregressive cross⁃lagged models (ARCLM) were used to analyze the bidirectional associations between smartphone multitasking and anxiety symptoms among college students. Results: A total of 953 college students were included in this study, 323 (33.9%) of whom were males. The mean age of participants at baseline was 18.89 ± 1.33 years. The rates of depressive symptoms among college students were 28.1% at baseline and 29.0% at 6-month follow-up, respectively. Pearson correlation analysis showed significant positive correlations between all zero-level variables (p < 0.01). Linear regression analyses showed that after adjusting for demographic characteristics and health risk behaviors, smartphone multitasking was still positively correlated to anxiety symptoms at baseline (β = 1.30, 95%CI: 0.54-2.05) and 6-month follow-up (β = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.32-1.37). The results of ARCLM showed that smartphone multitasking at baseline was positively correlated with anxiety symptoms after 6-month (β = 0.03, p < 0.01), but anxiety symptoms at baseline did not significantly correlate to smartphone multitasking after 6-month among college students (β = 0.04, p = 0.51). Discussion and Conclusions: Smartphone multitasking is associated with higher anxiety symptoms at baseline and follow-up, but no bidirectional relationship exists. Reducing smartphone use may improve mental wellbeing.

Indexed as

AnxietyDepressionSmartphoneStudentsAdolescentChinaFemaleHumansMaleProspective StudiesUniversitiesYoung Adultanxietycohort studycollege studentsmedia multitaskingmobile phone addictionsmartphone

Identifiers

PMID40402603
PMCPMC12282164

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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.