Loneliness And Anxiety In College Students: The Mediating Role Of Mobile Phone Addiction And The Moderating Role Of Gender

Objective: This study from the perspective of emotional,behavioral and psychological factors,to understand the status quo of loneliness,mobile phone addiction and anxiety of college students,to explore the mechanism of loneliness and mobile phone addiction on the anxiety of college students,to provide theoretical support for improving the physical and mental health of college students.Methods: In this study,595 college students from a medical university in Shenyang were selected as research objects in May 2021.A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the adapted UCLA 3 item scale,Mobile Phone Addiction Index Scale(MPAI)and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale(GAD-7)using the questionnaire Star platform.Excel and SPSS 26.0 were used for data export and collation,descriptive statistical analysis,Pearson correlation analysis,T test,variance analysis,post LSD test,and Process plug-in(Model 14)was used for mediation analysis.Results:(1)There is no significant difference in demographic variables such as gender and major.(2)Whether college students’ mobile phone addiction is the only child or not(t=-2.314,P<0.05)and home region(t=-2.995,P< 0.01)had significant difference.(3)There were significant differences in the anxiety of college students in whether the only child or not(t=-2.386,P<0.05),the region of the family(t=-2.351,P<0.05)and the monthly cost of living(F=2.994,P<0.05).(4)There was a positive correlation between loneliness,mobile phone addiction and anxiety among college students(r=0.326,P<0.01;r=0.532,P<0.01;r=0.399,P<0.01).(5)Mobile phone addiction played a mediating role in the effect of loneliness on anxiety(c=0.52,P<0.001;a=0.31,P<0.001;b=0.24,P<0.001;c’=0.45,P<0.001;a*b=0.07,P<0.001),and gender played a moderating role in the effect of mobile phone addiction on anxiety(β=-0.25,P<0.001).Conclusion: This study is helpful to explore the influence of loneliness and mobile phone addiction on anxiety of college students and its mechanism,and has certain enlightenment for relieving students’ loneliness,reducing students’ dependence on mobile phone and improving students’ mental health.At the same time,innovation and limitations are also discussed in this study.