Prospective Association between Smartphone Addiction and Perceived Stress and Moderation of Boredom during COVID-19 in China

Jiankang He, Xue Yang, Mingxuan Du, Chengjia Zhao, Xin Wang, Guohua Zhang () and Honglei Peng ()
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Jiankang He: Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China
Xue Yang: Center for Health Behaviours Research, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Mingxuan Du: Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China
Chengjia Zhao: School of Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Xin Wang: Center for Health Behaviours Research, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Guohua Zhang: Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China
Honglei Peng: The Audit Office, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 22, 1-10

Abstract: Smartphone addiction (SPA) is prevalent in college students and harms their healthy development, and perceived stress (PS) has been a well-documented risk factor of SPA. People often experienced boredom during COVID-19; however, its effect on behavioral/mental health during the pandemic has been rarely tested. We investigated the prospective association between SPA and PS before and during COVID-19, as well as the moderation of boredom. A total of 197 college students participated in four-wave surveys from December 2018 to June 2020 in China. The cross-lagged model was developed to investigate the prospective association between SPA and PS from T1 to T4. Boredom was added to the model at T4 as a moderator to explore the moderating role of boredom during COVID-19. The results showed that the pandemic changed PS’s prediction on SPA. During COVID-19, boredom significantly affected SPA and PS and moderated the link from PS at T3 to PS at T4. The results suggest that the prospective associations between SPA and PS varied before and during COVID-19. Prevention of SPA should be conducted for new students and should be used to enhance their stress coping capacity. Intervention programs for eliminating boredom may be effective for reducing stress and SPA during COVID-19.

Keywords: college students; smartphone addiction; perceived stress; boredom; COVID-19 pandemic (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: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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