The Relationship between Social Anxiety, Smartphone Use, Dispositional Trust, and Problematic Smartphone Use: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Background: The pervasiveness of smartphones has raised concerns about an increase in the prevalence of problematic smartphone use (PSU), which depends on a set of psychological and behavioral risk factors. Previous research has yielded mixed results on factors predicting PSU, including social anxiety and trust. In particular, the role of trust remained largely unexplored. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between social anxiety and PSU, via the mediating role of time spent on the phone, and to explore the moderating role of dispositional trust toward others, by using a moderated mediation model with PSU as the outcome. Methods: A total of 240 young adults (Mage = 23.33, SD = 3.90, 50% male) answered an online questionnaire, which included the 12-item Social Anxiety Scale, a question on the daily duration of smartphone use, a single-item measure of dispositional trust, and the 10-item Smartphone Addiction Scale Short Version. Gender and occupational status were included as covariates. Results: Social anxiety was significantly and positively related to PSU; however, smartphone use did not mediate this relationship. Although the relationship between smartphone use and PSU was significant and positive, the link between social anxiety and smartphone use was not. Dispositional trust moderated and strengthened the direct relationships between social anxiety and PSU as well as smartphone use and PSU. Conclusions. Heavy smartphone users as well as socially anxious individuals, with the tendency of trusting others, are more at risk of PSU, which can be explained by their preference and search for online connections.

Smartphone Addiction and Associated Health Outcomes in Adult Populations: A Systematic Review

“…Anna Maria [41] • Social anxiety was significantly and positively related to PSU Social anxiety Fair Table 2. Cont.…”

“…As outlined in Table 2, mental health was associated with SA in fourteen studies [22,25,27,28,30,31,33,36,[40][41][42][45][46][47]. Depression and anxiety were the most common mental health conditions associated with SA [22,25,28,30,31,33,36,41,45,47].…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from 30 to 5372 adults (Table 1). Seven were conducted in South Korea [21][22][23][24][25][26][27], three in Saudi Arabia [28][29][30], four in China [31][32][33][34], four in Turkey [35][36][37][38], one in India [39] one in Taiwan [40], one in Switzerland [41], one in the USA [42], one in Italy [43], one in Thailand [44], and three were international studies [45][46][47] (Figure 2). Smartphone addiction was measured in the study sample using different scales, however, the Smartphone Addiction Scale, Short Version (SAS-SV; n = 8) was the most common measure (Table 1).…”

“…As outlined in Table 2, mental health was associated with SA in fourteen studies [22,25,27,28,30,31,33,36,[40][41][42][45][46][47]. Depression and anxiety were the most common mental health conditions associated with SA [22,25,28,30,31,33,36,41,45,47]. Several depression measures were used; however, the Beck Depression Inventory was the most common measure used [28,30,36,40].…”

Conhecimento, atitude e percepção de estudantes da educação profissional de uma escola técnica de saúde acerca da pandemia de COVID-19: estudo transversal

“…O uso de smartphones por mais de 97% dos estudantes pode ser considerado um fator desencadeante de estresse psicológico. Dados da literatura demonstram que o uso problemático destes dispositivos gera um fenômeno de hiperconectividade e adicção, com prejuízos cognitivos, psíquicos e comportamentais aos seus usuários (Sasidharan et al, 2020;Annoni et al, 2021). Entretanto, estudos prospectivos serão necessários para se determinar o real impacto do uso excessivo de smartphones no bem-estar psíquico dos estudantes.…”