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. 2021 Dec 3:9:752210.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.752210. eCollection 2021.

Longitudinal Effects of Stressful Life Events on Problematic Smartphone Use and the Mediating Roles of Mental Health Problems in Chinese Undergraduate Students

Chengjia Zhao  1 , Nani Ding  2 , Xue Yang  3 , Huihui Xu  1 , Xinyi Lai  1 , Xiaolian Tu  4 , Yijun Lv  5 , Dongwu Xu  1 , Guohua Zhang  1   6   7
Affiliations

Longitudinal Effects of Stressful Life Events on Problematic Smartphone Use and the Mediating Roles of Mental Health Problems in Chinese Undergraduate Students

Chengjia Zhao et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background and Aims: This three-wave longitudinal study investigated the effects of stressful life events on problematic smartphone use and the mediating roles of mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) in Chinese undergraduate students. Methods: A total of 197 undergraduate students completed the three-wave surveys. Their severity of stressful life events, mental health problems, and problematic smartphone use were assessed. Results: Regression analyses revealed that stressful life events at T1 was significantly associated with problematic smartphone use at T3. Mediation analyses showed that mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) at T2 fully mediated the association between stressful life events at T1 and problematic smartphone use at T3 (B = 0.042, 0.034, and 0.022, respectively). Conclusions: The present study revealed that stressful life events and mental health problems (i.e., depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, and suicidal ideation) are predictors of problematic smartphone use in Chinese college students.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; longitudinal study; problematic smartphone use; sleep quality; stressful life events; suicidal ideation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visualization of Hypothesis 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Visualization of Hypothesis 2: (A) Hypothesis 2a; (B) Hypothesis 2b; and (C) Hypothesis 2c.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) The mediation model including stressful life events at T1, depressive system at T2, and PSU at T3; (B) The mediation model including stressful life events at T1, sleep quality at T2, and PSU at T3; (C) The mediation model including stressful life events at T1, suicidal ideation at T2, and PSU at T3. Note c: total effect, c′: direct effect; b: standardized regression coefficient, SE: standard error, CI: confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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