The Effect Of Inhibitory Control Ability On Mobile Phone Dependence Among Junior High School Students

With the development of science and technology,the functions and appearance of mobile phones have been optimized,bringing great convenience to our daily life.Whereas many people can't be separated from mobile phone as its convenience,thus,a pervading phenomenon—mobile phone dependence(MPD)attracts the researcher's attention.Importantly,MPD happened not only among a great many adults,but also in teenagers including many middle school students.The development of physical and mental health of them was severely impeded by MPD.Therefore,the underlying reason for MPD among middle school students need to be studied to explore the factors and its combined effects that influence MPD and provide suggestion for intervention and education.Previous studies had shown that adults with good inhibitory control ability are less likely to be MPD.However,as adolescence,middle school students are different to adults on inhibitory control ability and MPD.While,past researches hadn't show whether inhibitory control ability can also influence MPD in middle school students.In addition,since the factors forming MPD are not independent,the predictive effect of inhibitory control ability on MPD will also be influenced by other factors.What's more,anxiety is also an important factor in the development of MPD,which is related to the inhibitory control ability.However,few study had investigated whether state and trait anxiety can increase the effect of inhibitory control ability on MPD.Based on the problems above,the present study hypothesized that:H1:Middle school students with high inhibitory control ability were less likely to have MPD.H2:Anxiety level(State anxiety or Trait anxiety)can modulate the effect of inhibitory control ability on MPD.Based on the hypotheses,185 middle school students were firstly asked to complete the Mobile phone addiction index(MPAI)scale and the State-trait anxiety inventory(STAI),and then completed Simon task,in order to explore the relationship between inhibitory control ability,MPD and state-trait anxiety in middle school students.The results are as follows:(1)MPD is gradually serious with the growth of age,grade of middle school students and the increasing time of using mobile phone per day.(2)Inhibitory control ability is negatively correlated with the withdrawal dimension of MPD in middle school students.The withdrawal level of students with different inhibitory control abilities is significantly different.Specifically,the withdrawal level of the students with high inhibitory control ability is lower than the students with low inhibitory control ability.What's more,inhibitory control ability can negatively predict the withdrawal level of MPD of middle school students.(3)State anxiety can modulate the effect of inhibitory control on withdrawal,while trait anxiety cannot.When the level of state anxiety was low,there was no significant difference in the withdrawal of students with high or low inhibitory control ability.With the increasing of state anxiety,the influence of inhibitory control ability on withdrawal becoming obvious.With high state anxiety,the withdrawal of students with high inhibitory control ability was significantly lower than that of students with low inhibitory control ability.The conclusions are as follows:(1)Compared with middle school students of younger age and lower grade,we should pay more attention to the prevention of MPD in students with older age and higher grade.In addition,in order to prevent MPD,students should also reduce the time of daily use of mobile phones.(2)Compared with high inhibitory control ability,poor inhibitory control ability can lead to more serious withdrawal reaction(MPD),However,with the increase of inhibitory control ability,the withdrawal reaction(MPD)level decreased,which proves the impulsive pathway in the pathway model of problematic mobile phone use.(3)State anxiety level can change the predictive effect of inhibitory control ability on withdrawal reaction(MPD)of middle school students.To be specific,the higher the state anxiety,the greater the difference on probability of becoming MPD in students with different inhibitory control ability level.At high state anxiety conditions,Students with low inhibition are most likely to becoming MPD.This discovery broadens previous theories about the formation of MPD.It also suggests that in practical education,we should reduce state anxiety of MPD students while conducting inhibitory control training to achieve better results.