ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
The impact of smartphone addiction on depressive symptoms among medical students: a chain mediation model of self-acceptance and loneliness.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The primary importance of the mental health of medical students occurs in the context of the Healthy China 2030 Initiative since they will form the core workforce of the national medical and health system. Nevertheless, there is current data showing a surge in the prevalence of depressive symptoms in this group, with the overuse of smartphones cited as one of the key contributing factors. Objective: Although the strong relationship between smartphone addiction and depression has been established, there remain gaps in understanding the psychological processes that connect the two concepts. The sequential associations (i.e., cognitive and emotional processes) should be clarified, thus, it is imperative to at least identify the particular psychological pathway in the connection between smartphone addiction and depression in medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 823 medical students. To measure the levels of smartphone addiction, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and self-acceptance of participants, there was use of validated standardized questionnaires. The proposed Chain Mediation model was tested using SPSS 26.0. Results: Smartphone addiction is not only directly associated with depressive symptoms (β = 0.21, Conclusion: Smartphone addiction mainly may contribute to depressive symptoms in medical students in a dynamic chain reaction, that is, first, it is related to lower self-acceptance, which in turn is associated with higher levels of loneliness, and ultimately, linked to more severe depressive symptoms. The issue of interventions on the mental health of medical students cannot thus be limited to restrictions on smartphone use. Rather, there is a recommendation to employ strategy-based techniques aimed at enhancing self-acceptance and counteracting loneliness to be a more effective approach to breaking the smartphone addiction-depression chain.
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.