Negative School Gossip and Youth Adolescents’ Mobile Phone Addiction: Mediating Roles of Anxiety and Experiential Avoidance

Jie Xiong, Can He () and Hua Wei
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Jie Xiong: Center for Mental Health, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Can He: College of Education Science, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435000, China
Hua Wei: Normal College, Qingdao University, Qingdao 266071, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-10

Abstract: Being the target of negative school gossip, a form of relational aggression, has been shown to be associated with psychological and behavioral problems in youth adolescents. Based on the experience avoidance model, this study tested the association between negative school gossip and youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction, and the serial mediation roles of anxiety and experience avoidance in this relationship. Junior high school students (N = 837; ages 12–15; 50% girls) completed the Negative School Gossip Scale, Anxiety Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), and Mobile Phone Addiction Scale in their classrooms. The results of regression-based analyses showed that after controlling for age and gender, (1) negative school gossip was significantly associated with mobile phone addiction; (2) anxiety and experience avoidance each significantly mediated this association; (3) anxiety and experience avoidance serially mediated this association. The results support the experience avoidance model and highlight emotional factors as an internal mechanism by which negative school gossip is associated with youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction. The results also have implications for preventing and reducing youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction.

Keywords: negative school gossip; anxiety; experience avoidance; mobile phone addiction; youth adolescent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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