The Effect Of Body Dissatisfaction On Smartphone Addiction:A Moderated Mediation Model

Smartphone addiction refers to a new type of behavior addiction caused by individuals' excessive and uncontrollable use of smart phones,which results in the impairment of their social functions,psychological and behavioral problems.Smartphone addiction has negative impacts on individuals.Therefore,the influencing factors and mechanisms of smart phone addiction have attracted the attention of many researchers.Previous studies showed that body dissatisfaction is one of the factors which attribute to smartphone addiction.Dissatisfaction with the body means that the individual perceives the gap between his or her physical appearance and the ideal body appearance.That kind of perceptions will further lead to cognitive,emotional,behavioral and perceptual problems.Early adolescence is the second leap in the development of individual self-awareness.During this period of time,one prominent feature of adolescents'self-consciousness is that they have strong focuses on body images,such as body type,appearance,and instrumentation.Due to that excessive attention on their physical appearance,they could be more vulnerable to negative emotions,such as,anxious and shame.That could leads to high dissatisfaction with the body,resulting in internet addiction.Research on body dissatisfaction and smartphone addiction showed that self-representation modified the relationship between body image avoidance and internet addiction.Moreover,desire to control self-presentation online is one key factor leading to internet addiction inspired by body image avoidance.Meanwhile,the impact of body dissatisfaction on smartphone addiction may vary with the quality of friendship.Above all.the present study tested the influence of body dissatisfaction on smartphone addiction and the mechanism in this relationship.Base on a lot of theories,empirical studies from all over the world and psychological characteristics of different adolescents,the present research our lab had done constructed a moderated mediation model:positive online self-representation plays as a mediator between body dissatisfaction and smartphone addiction,while the mediation of positive online self-representation is moderated by friendship quality.1041 different students from 8 different middle schools in China from many provinces were investigated with the questionnaires of body dissatisfaction,friendship quality,positive online self-presentation,and smartphone addiction.Data was quickly analyzed with SPSS 20 and PROCESS.The results were as follows:(1)body dissatisfaction was positively associated with smartphone addiction;(2)body dissatisfaction was positively associated with positive online self-presentation,and positive online self-presentation was positively associated with smartphone addiction;(3)body dissatisfaction was positively associated with friendship quality,and friendship quality was positively associated with positive online self-presentation;(4)positive online self-representation played as a mediator between body dissatisfaction and smartphone addiction;(5)the mediation of positive online self-representation between body dissatisfaction and smartphone addiction was moderated by friendship quality.To be specific,under the condition of low friendship quality,body dissatisfaction was more likely to positively predict smartphone addiction.Finally,the theoretical and practical values were widely discussed in different ways.Moreover,future directions for further research were introduced based on the results of the present study.