Perceived Stress and Smartphone Addiction in Medical College Students: The Mediating Role of Negative Emotions and the Moderating Role of Psychological Capital

Abstract

Background: Many studies have confirmed the existence of an extremely close relationship between smartphone addiction and perceived stress. However, the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the association between perceived stress and smartphone addiction in medical college students remain largely unexplored.Methods: A questionnaire was distributed among a total of 769 medical college students in Heilongjiang Province, China. Participants completed measures of perceived stress, smartphone addiction, negative emotions, and psychological capital. Pearson’s correlation analysis was used to test the correlations between variables. The analysis of a moderated mediation model was performed using Hayes’s PROCESS macro.Results: Pearson’s correlation analysis indicated that perceived stress (r = 0.18, p < 0.01) and negative emotions (r = 0.31, p < 0.01) were positively correlated with smartphone addiction, and psychological capital was negatively correlated with smartphone addiction (r = −0.29, p < 0.01). The moderated mediation analysis indicated that negative emotions partially mediated the association between perceived stress and smartphone addiction [mediation effect accounted for 33.3%, SE = 0.10, 95% CI = (0.10, 0.24)], and the first stage of the mediation process was significantly moderated by psychological capital [moderated mediation = −0.01, SE = 0.01, 95% CI = (−0.01, −0.00)].Conclusion: Negative emotions play a mediating role between perceived stress and smartphone addiction, and psychological capital plays an important moderating role in the first stage of the mediation process.

Exploration of Psychological Mechanism of Smartphone Addiction Among International Students of China by Selecting the Framework of the I-PACE Model

“…This is consistent with the general strain theory which holds that all kinds of strain or stress experienced by individuals will lead to negative emotions and then lead to problem behavior ( Jun and Choi, 2015 ). Many studies have shown that stress is an important risk factor for individual addictive behavior ( Mai et al, 2012 ; Wang et al, 2021 ). The influence of perceived stress on smartphone addiction has begun to gain empirical support ( Chiu, 2014 ; Yang et al, 2020 ).…”

A systematic review on relationship between stress and problematic smartphone use

“…This section presents the methodological information of the 35 studies included in the current review. As shown in Table 1 (See Appendix), majority of these studies have employed cross-sectional design (n=32) [12], [14], [17]- [22], [24], [27], [28], [30]- [50], which involve one-off data collection and study the relationship between stress and problematic smartphone use at a single point in time [51]. Only a few studies have employed longitudinal design (n=3) [13], [23], [29], which involve multiple waves of data collection and study the relationship between stress and problematic smartphone use at different points in time over a period of time [51].…”

“…Only a few studies have employed longitudinal design (n=3) [13], [23], [29], which involve multiple waves of data collection and study the relationship between stress and problematic smartphone use at different points in time over a period of time [51]. Most of the studies reviewed are conducted in China (n=17) [12]- [23], [27]- [29], [35], [36], [41], [44], [45], [47]. Although they are relatively scant, some studies are also conducted in other countries such as Korea (n=3) [42], [43], [46], India (n=2) [33], [48], Malaysia (n=2) [14], [24], Turkey (n=2) [38], [39], United States (n=1) [13], Canada (n=1) [34], Netherlands (n=1) [31], Brazil (n=1) [49], Oman (n=1) [40], and Lebanon (n=1) [30].…”

“…The studies reviewed have primarily sampled college/university students (n=23) [13], [14], [17], [19], [22], [24], [27]- [30], [33]- [36], [38]- [42], [44], [46]- [48]. Other studies have sampled middle school students (n=2) [12], [23], high school students (n=2) [18], [21], a mix of middle school students and high school students (n=1) [20], and a mix of middle school students, high school students, and college/university students (n=1) [45].…”

“…In this regard, among these studies, a total of 18 studies are excluded for not being written in English (n=1), not reporting correlation coefficients (R) and/or beta regression coefficients (β) for the relationship between stress and problematic smartphone use (n=6), having incomplete statistical information (e.g., p-value) (n=1), not involving measure of problematic smartphone use (n=2), having not accessible measurement scales of stress (n=3), considering technostress (n=1), being conference papers (n=1), and being review papers (n=3). Based on the discussions above, a total of 35 studies are included in the final review as shown in Table 1 (See Appendix) [12], [13], [14], [17]- [24], [27]- [50].…”