The Relationship Between Problematic Smartphone Use And Boredom Proneness Among College Students And Its Interventions

Problematic mobile phone use has gradually become an important negative factor affecting the physical and mental health as well as academic performance of college students.Previous studies have shown a significant correlation between problematic mobile phone use and boredom proneness,with individuals exhibiting more severe problematic mobile phone use also having a higher level of boredom proneness.Some researchers have suggested that there may be a bidirectional relationship between the two,but longitudinal studies examining the predictive relationship between them are rare.According to the Meaning and Attentional Components,attentional resources and meaning are important factors in boredom,and attentional problems and a decrease in the meaning of life are negative consequences of problematic mobile phone use.Therefore,this study aims to explore the bidirectional predictive relationship between problematic mobile phone use and boredom proneness using a longitudinal crosslagged model,and attempts to introduce the ownership of meaning in life and attentional problems to explain how problematic mobile phone use predicts boredom proneness.Finally,given that problematic mobile phone use has become an important factor affecting the physical and mental health of college students,this study proposes a narrative therapy intervention program to alleviate problematic mobile phone use among college students.The study consists of two sub-studies:study 1 employed a longitudinal design to examine the relationship between PSU and boredom proneness and tested whether life meaning and attention problems mediated the predictive relationship between PSU and boredom proneness.The study tracks 475 college students over a period of four months.The results show that(1)there is a significant bidirectional predictive relationship between problematic mobile phone use and boredom proneness,with problematic mobile phone use at one time point significantly positively predicting subsequent boredom proneness(β = 0.10,p<.001),and vice versa(β = 0.06,p =.014);(2)the ownership of meaning in life does not play a significant mediating role in predicting boredom proneness in problematic mobile phone use;and(3)attentional problems play a mediating role in the prediction of boredom proneness by problematic mobile phone use(p =.018).study 2 combines quantitative and qualitative research and designs a narrative therapy intervention program to examine whether the program can effectively alleviate problematic mobile phone use among college students and improve their boredom proneness.The quantitative study uses a pre-test/post-test experimental design with a control group,with the experimental group(n = 13)receiving narrative therapy intervention and the control group(n = 15)receiving no intervention.The results show that narrative therapy can effectively intervene and improve problematic mobile phone use and reduce boredom proneness levels among college students.The qualitative study codes the narrative intervention process using Innovative moments Coding System,and the results show that high-level Innovation Moments occur during the intervention and gradually increase,further confirming the intervention effect of narrative therapy on problematic mobile phone use.In conclusion,this study shows that there is a significant bidirectional predictive effect between problematic mobile phone use and boredom proneness,with attentional problems playing a mediating role in the prediction of boredom proneness by problematic mobile phone use,while the ownership of meaning in life does not play a significant mediating role.Additionally,the study demonstrates that narrative therapy can effectively alleviate problematic mobile phone use and reduce boredom proneness levels among college students.The results of this study help to further understand the interaction between problematic mobile phone use and boredom proneness,how problematic mobile phone use affects boredom proneness,and provide some insights into interventions for problematic mobile phone use among college students.