Cross-lagged analysis of problematic social media use and phubbing among college students
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Background: Phubbing is a commonly seen phenomenon that has emerged in recent years among groups of college students, posing a rising challenge to educators. We conduct research in which the reciprocal relationship between problematic social media use and phubbing is explored and analysed quantitatively, aiming to discover reliable theoretical support to work out an appropriate intervention on students’ phubbing for students’ mental health concerns. Methods: Using the problematic social media use scale and the phubbing scale, 328 college students from four universities in Shandong Province were enrolled in a two-stage longitudinal follow-up study for 20 months from December 2019 to August 2021. A cross-lagged model was constructed to explore the reciprocal relationship between problematic social media use and phubbing. The results of correlation analysis showed that problematic social media use was positively correlated with phubbing at both time points (r = 0.51, 0.53, P < 0.01). Results: The results of cross-lagged regression analysis showed that the predictive effect of pretest problematic social media use on posttest problematic social media use was statistically significant (β = 0.24, P < 0.01). There was statistical significance in the prediction effect of pretest phubbing on posttest phubbing (β = 0.16, P < 0.05). Pretest problematic social media use had statistical significance in predicting posttest phubbing (β = 0.22, P < 0.01), and there was no statistical significance in the prediction of pretest phubbing on posttest problematic social media (β = 0.16, P < 0.05). Conclusion: The problematic social media use of college students is closely related to phubbing, and problematic social media use can predict phubbing.
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There is a positive correlation between phubbing behavior and social media use, with social media addiction predicting phubbing.
“se ha establecido una correlación positiva entre el comportamiento del phubbing y el uso de las redes sociales, siendo la adicción a las redes predictora del comportamiento del phubbing”
From Phubbing y redes sociales: Análisis de una muestra de universitarios del Perú: El phubbing (2025) · cites this paper as Lv & Wang, 2023
Increased phubbing affects university students' relationships, class work and academic performance.
“un incremento del phubbing afecta a las relaciones entre los estudiantes universitarios, influyendo en su trabajo en clase y en el rendimiento académico”
From Phubbing y redes sociales: Análisis de una muestra de universitarios del Perú: El phubbing (2025) · cites this paper as Lv & Wang (2023)
Esta investigación coincide con los datos de otras investigaciones que vinculan el uso conflictivo de las redes sociales con un menor rendimiento académico.
“Nuestra investigación coincide con los datos de otras investigaciones que vinculan el uso conflictivo de las redes sociales con un menor rendimiento académico (Dontre, 2021; Lv & Wang, 2023; Yang et al., 2019).”
From Phubbing y redes sociales: Análisis de una muestra de universitarios del Perú: El phubbing (2025) · cites this paper as Lv & Wang, 2023
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- Authors
- Lv, S., & Wang, H.
- Affiliations
- Qingdao Harbour Vocational & Technical College (CN)
- Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Hui
- ORCID
- Wang, Hui
- Venue
- BMC Psychology
- Published
- 2023-02-10
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 39-39
- ISSN
- 2050-7283 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9912680
- OpenAlex
- W4319983355
- Cited by
- 18
- References
- 39
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 7.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- BMC Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- The Special Task Project of Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education (21JDSZ3119)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Digital Media and Philosophy
- Social Sciences › Demography › Cyberloafing and Workplace Behavior
- Keywords
- social media addiction, phubbing, university students, bidirectional relationship, student mental health, social media use, longitudinal prediction
- MeSH terms
- Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Universities, Social Media
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