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Self-esteem mediates the relationship between physical activity and smartphone addiction of Chinese college students: a cross-sectional study

Yuanyuan Ke, Xiu-Xia Liu, Xue Xu, Bingchen He, Jinfu Wang, Lijun Zuo, Haiyun Wang, Guan Yang

Frontiers in Psychology, 2024

39 citations

Abstract

Objective Smartphone addiction, as a key topic in the current field of behavioral addictions and public health, has brought many negative impacts on the physical, psychological, interpersonal communication, and even academic performance among contemporary college students. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to offer ideas for solving smartphone addiction among college students through investigating the potential mediating effect of self-esteem in the relationship between physical activity and smartphone addiction. Methods By the quota sampling, a cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate 650 college students from 10 colleges in Guangzhou Higher Mega Center, and several self-reported instruments including physical activity rating scale-3 (PARS-3), mobile phone addiction tendency scale (MPATS), self-esteem scale (SES) were used to collect the related data needed for the present study. The descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, and mediating effect analysis in this study were performed in turn. Results The results showed that physical activity (r = −0.124, p < 0.01) and self-esteem (r = −0.360, p < 0.01) were all negatively correlated with smartphone addiction, and both could also significantly and negatively predict smartphone addiction. There was a positive correlation between physical activity and self-esteem (r = 0.084, p < 0.05), and self-esteem could be significantly predicted by physical activity. And more important,…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a cross-sectional, done in people. Its evidence level is 4 of 5 (Low · observational). Observational designs can show an association but not prove cause.

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