The Role of Family Health in Mediating the Association between Smartphone Use and Health Risk Behaviors among Chinese Adolescent Students: A National Cross-Sectional Study

Fangmin Gong, Zhaowen Lei (), Zhuliu Gong, Hewei Min, Pu Ge, Yi Guo, Wai-Kit Ming, Xinying Sun and Yibo Wu ()
Additional contact information
Fangmin Gong: School of Literature and Journalism Communication, Jishou University, Jishou 416000, China
Zhaowen Lei: School of Literature and Journalism Communication, Jishou University, Jishou 416000, China
Zhuliu Gong: School of Literature and Journalism Communication, Jishou University, Jishou 416000, China
Hewei Min: School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Pu Ge: Bachelor of Pharmacy Institute of Chinese Medicinal Sciences, University of Macau, Macao 999078, China
Yi Guo: School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Wai-Kit Ming: Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health, Jockey Club College of Veterinary Medicine and Life Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Xinying Sun: School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yibo Wu: School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: The direct impact of smartphones on health risk behaviors of adolescent students has been verified. However, the mediating mechanisms that underly this relationship remain largely unknown. Therefore, the aim of the study is to explore the role of family health in mediating the relationship between the frequency of smartphone use and adolescent students’ health risk behaviors. A questionnaire was used to collect cross-sectional data from 693 adolescent students aged 12–18 in China and a structural equation model was analyzed. Among the nine health risk behaviors, the most frequent health risk behaviors in Chinese adolescent students were non-compliance walking behaviors (M=Mean; SD = Standard deviation) (M ± SD) (2.78 ± 1.747), eating unhygienic food (M ± SD) (2.23 ± 1.299), being subjected to physical violence (M ± SD) (2.19 ± 0.645) , and leaving home (M ± SD) (2.13 ± 0.557). The SEM results showed that the adolescent students’ smartphone use had a positive impact on delaying the age of first alcohol consumption ( β = 0.167, CI:0.067 0.287) and a negative impact on the non-compliance walking behaviors ( β = 0.176, CI:0.011 0.266). Family health plays an indirect-only mediated role (the proportions of indirect-only mediated roles are 11.2%, 12.4%, and 11.5%) in the relationship between smartphone use and adolescent students’ partial health risk behaviors: (CI: −0.042 −0.002), (CI: −0.049 −0.005), and (CI: −0.043 −0.002). These findings provided a theoretical and practical basis for better interventions in adolescent health risk behaviors.

Keywords: family health; smartphone use; adolescents; health risk behaviors; mediating role; structural equations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13378/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/20/13378/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:20:p:13378-:d:944182

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().