The Moderating Effects Of State Anxiety And Loneliness On The Relationship Between Users’ Motivations And Excessive Smartphone Use

With the advance of science and technology, smartphones have gradually penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives, and has become a necessity for many young adults. However, with the popularity of smart phones and the gradual increase in function, excessive smartphone use has recently attracted researchers’ attention. Previous studies have suggested that state anxiety, loneliness and motivations are important predictors of excessive smartphone use. People use smartphones to meet their needs of entertainment and social interaction; based on the feeling of instability and interpersonal sensitivity, high anxiety individuals would use their smartphones excessively; people with a high sense of loneliness probably behave relationship incompetence, and they would be more likely to communicate with others via text messaging or other applications on smartphones. According to the compensatory Internet use theory, users’ need and motivation to cope with life problems is determined by the degree of life problems, which implies that the relationship between gratifications and excessive smartphone use is moderated by life problems. However, few studies have investigated how motivations and state anxiety or loneliness interact with each other in leading to excessive smartphone use. In the current study, based on the Compensatory Internet Use theory, we analyzed the moderating role of state anxiety and loneliness on the relationship between two types of motivations(i.e. entertainment and social interaction) and excessive smartphone use. Using Smartphone Addiction Scale for College Students(SAS-C), Smartphone Usage Motivation Scale, State Anxiety Scale(S-Anxiety) and UCLA Loneliness Self-report Scale, we investigated 600 Chinese college students who identified themselves as smartphone users. Results indicated that:(1) There was a significant difference between boys and girls on the scale of SAS-C and entertainment motivation, boys’ scores were significantly higher than girls’, for excessive smartphone use, boys scored significantly higher than girls; while for social interaction motivation, girls score significantly higher than boys;(2) Among problematic smartphone users, two types of motivation—entertainment and social interaction, state anxiety and loneliness were significantly related to excessive smartphone use respectively;(3) Among non-problematic smartphone users, social interaction, state anxiety and loneliness were significantly related to excessive smartphone use respectively, while entertainment motivation was not significantly related to excessive smartphone use;(4) Among problematic smartphone users, state anxiety moderates the relationship between two types of motivation—entertainment and social interaction and excessive smartphone use;(5) Among problematic smartphone users, loneliness does not moderate the relationship between two types of motivation—entertainment and social interaction and excessive smartphone use;(6) Among non-problematic smartphone users, state anxiety does not moderate the relationship between two types of motivation—entertainment and social interaction and excessive smartphone use;(7) Among non-problematic smartphone users, loneliness does not moderate the relationship between two types of motivation—entertainment and social interaction and excessive smartphone use.Our study emphasized the importance of psychological well-being variables(i.e. anxiety in this study) in facilitating excessive smartphone use, proved that problematic smartphone users use smartphones as the coping strategies of life problems, and can also provide guidance for the designing interventions targeted at people with excessive smartphone use.