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. 2022 Aug 23;22(1):567.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04183-9.

Mobile phone addiction and depression among Chinese medical students: the mediating role of sleep quality and the moderating role of peer relationships

Ziyi Feng  1 , Yucong Diao  1 , Hongfei Ma  1 , Minghui Liu  1 , Meijun Long  1 , Shuang Zhao  1 , Hui Wu  1 , Yang Wang  2
Affiliations

Mobile phone addiction and depression among Chinese medical students: the mediating role of sleep quality and the moderating role of peer relationships

Ziyi Feng et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

The literature has shown that mobile phone addiction is an important risk factor for depression. However, the internal mechanisms of mobile phone addiction leading to depression are still not clear. This study examined the mediating role of sleep quality and moderating role of peer relationships in the association between mobile phone addiction and depression. A sample of 450 Chinese medical students were recruited to complete measures of mobile phone addiction, depression, sleep quality and peer relationships. In this study, SPSS 25.0 and macro PROCESS were used to conduct statistical analysis on the collected data. The results showed that sleep quality partially mediated the association between mobile phone addiction and depression. Moreover, the effect of sleep quality on depression was moderated by peer relationships. The present study can advance our understanding of how and when mobile phone addiction leads to depression. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed.

Keywords: Depression; Medical students; Mobile phone addiction; Peer relationships; Sleep quality.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled, “Mobile Phone Addiction and Depression among Chinese Medical Students: The Mediating Role of Sleep Quality and the Moderating Role of Peer Relationship”.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Hypothesis model Annotation: This hypothetical model consists of two parts: Hypothesis 1. Sleep quality mediates the association between mobile phone addiction and depression. Hypothesis 2. The mediating effect of sleep quality on the association between mobile phone addiction and depression is moderated by peer relationships. Hypothesis 2 includes: 1. Peer relationships moderate the effect of mobile phone addiction on depression. 2. Peer relationships moderate the effect of mobile phone addiction on sleep quality. 3. Peer relationships moderate the effect of sleep quality on depression
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Peer relationships moderate the relation between sleep quality and depression
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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