The Mobile Phone Addiction and Depression Among High School Students: The Roles of Cyberbullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Gender

Abstract

ObjectiveTo examine the relation between mobile phone addiction and high school students’ depression, and its inner mechanism—the sequential mediating roles of the cyberbullying victimization and the cyberbullying perpetration in this relationship.Methods1297 high school students were recruited to complete the Smartphone Addiction Scale, European Cyberbullying Intervention Project Questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.Results(1) Mobile phone addiction was positively correlated with and high school students’ depression; (2) cyberbullying victimization and the cyberbullying perpetration significantly mediated the relation between mobile phone addiction and high school students’ depression, which contained tow mediating paths—the independent mediating effects of cyberbullying victimization and the sequential mediating effect of cyberbullying victimization and the cyberbullying perpetration; (3) there are gender differences in the sequential mediation model, and boys who are victims of cyberbullying are more likely to develop into cyberbullying perpetrators than girls.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that depression among high school students with mobile phone addiction can be eliminated through the development of cyberbullying victimization and the cyberbullying perpetration.

Smartphones at School: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Educators’ and Students’ Perspectives on Mobile Phone Use at School

“…In addition to academic implications, however, student phone use may have broader impacts on social and emotional functioning and well-being [10,11]. For example, while previous research has predominantly focused on mobile phone use across contexts (and not specifically within the school context), higher levels of problematic phone use have been associated with depression, anxiety, and cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration [12][13][14]. While some argue that removing phones will not remove the bullying itself, and only the medium through which it occurs [15], cyberbullying can occur in a more secretive manner that is substantially more difficult for schools to monitor and control than offline bullying [12].…”