ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2026
The relationship between mobile phone addiction and depression, anxiety among Chinese college students: the mediating role of friendship quality and the moderating effect of preference for solitude.
Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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Abstract
Background: The university stage represents a critical period for the development of individual mental health. Mobile phone addiction is closely linked to depression and anxiety among college students, and both friendship quality and preference for solitude are tightly associated with college students' mobile phone addiction and emotional health. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationships and internal mechanisms among mobile phone addiction, friendship quality, preference for solitude, depression and anxiety in college students. Methods: A total of 1083 Chinese college students (58.2% female; mean age = 19.87 ± 1.692 years) were included as participants. Data were collected using the Mobile Phone Addiction Index, Friendship Quality Questionnaire, Preference for Solitude Questionnaire, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Data processing and analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and the PROCESS macro. Results: (1) Mobile phone addiction was significantly negatively correlated with friendship quality, and significantly positively correlated with both depression and anxiety; friendship quality was significantly negatively correlated with depression and anxiety; preference for solitude was significantly positively correlated with depression and anxiety. (2) Mobile phone addiction not only directly and positively predicted depression and anxiety among college students, but also predicted depression and anxiety through the mediating role of friendship quality. (3) The direct effect of mobile phone addiction on depression and the mediating effect of friendship quality in the relationships between mobile phone addiction and depression/anxiety were both moderated by preference for solitude, whereas the moderating effect of preference for solitude on the association between mobile phone addiction and anxiety was not significant. Conclusion: Friendship quality serves as an important mediating pathway between mobile phone addiction and depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese college students. Preference for solitude may amplify the associations of mobile phone addiction with poorer friendship quality and elevated depressive symptoms.
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