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How is college adjustment relates to smartphone addiction: a comprehensive and pluralist approach

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Abstract

Despite the rapid growth in college students who spend more time on smartphones, study examining the relationship between college experience and smartphone use has been limited. This longitudinal study furthered this line of research by examining the relationship between college adjustment and problematic smartphone use from a comprehensive and pluralist approach. Our results found: First, there existed a bidirectional relationship between college adjustment and problematic smartphone use, and the pattern of bidirectional relationship between college adjustment and problematic smartphone use showed variances as a function of temporal lags. Furthermore, general anxiety mediates the relationship between college adjustment and problematic smartphone use. Last, existential meaninglessness moderates the indirect effect of general anxiety on the the relationship between college adjustment and problematic smartphone use, such that the relationship is stronger, when existential meaninglessness is high. Our findings provides a deep understanding of how college adjustment relates to problematic smartphone use, and theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Data availability

The datasets used during the current study are not publicly available because it belongs to a large dataset which is now under usage, but will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510000, China

    Tong Wu

  2. Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, Hebei University of Science & Technology, Shijiazhuang, 050018, China

    Danping Li

  3. School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, 200000, China

    Yabei Cui

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  1. Tong Wu
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  2. Danping Li
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  3. Yabei Cui
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Contributions

Tong Wu conceived this study and completed the major part of introduction, literature review, methodology and results; Danping Li revised it critically for important content; Yabei Cui contributed to questionnaire designing and data collecting, and completed the part of discussion.

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Correspondence to Danping Li.

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Wu, T., Li, D. & Cui, Y. How is college adjustment relates to smartphone addiction: a comprehensive and pluralist approach. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05837-5

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