Depression, anxiety, and smartphone addiction in university students- A cross sectional study
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: The study aims to assess prevalence of smartphone addiction symptoms, and to ascertain whether depression or anxiety, independently, contributes to smartphone addiction level among a sample of Lebanese university students, while adjusting simultaneously for important sociodemographic, academic, lifestyle, personality trait, and smartphone-related variables. METHODS: A random sample of 688 undergraduate university students (mean age = 20.64 ±1.88 years; 53% men) completed a survey composed of a) questions about socio-demographics, academics, lifestyle behaviors, personality type, and smartphone use-related variables; b) 26-item Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) Scale; and c) brief screeners of depression and anxiety (PHQ-2 and GAD-2), which constitute the two core DSM-IV items for major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder, respectively. RESULTS: Prevalence rates of smartphone-related compulsive behavior, functional impairment, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms were substantial. 35.9% felt tired during daytime due to late-night smartphone use, 38.1% acknowledged decreased sleep quality, and 35.8% slept less than four hours due to smartphone use more than once. Whereas gender, residence, work hours per week, faculty, academic performance (GPA), lifestyle habits (smoking and alcohol drinking), and religious practice did not associate with smartphone addiction score; personality type A, class (year 2 vs. year 3), younger age at first smartphone use, excessive use during a weekday, using it for entertainment and not using it to call family members, and having depression or anxiety, showed statistically significant associations with smartphone addiction. Depression and anxiety scores emerged as independent positive predictors of smartphone addiction, after adjustment for confounders. CONCLUSION: Several independent positive predictors of smartphone addiction emerged including depression and anxiety. It could be that young adults with personality type A experiencing high stress level and low mood may lack positive stress coping mechanisms and mood management techniques and are thus highly susceptible to smartphone addiction.
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College students with lower self-control are easily addicted to overuse of smartphones, which results in poor mental health such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
“there is considerable evidence that vulnerable individuals (e.g., college students) who have lower self-control are easily addicted to the overuse of smartphone, which results in poor mental health such as anxiety [8,9], depression [10] and loneliness [11].”
From Comparative effectiveness of mind-body exercise versus cognitive behavioral therapy for college students with problematic smartphone use: A randomized controlled trial (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
The Abstract’s Results report an association between depression and smartphone addiction among university students, supporting the depression link for which this citation is placed. But the Discussion’s Study strengths and limitations section says the cross-sectional findings cannot establish causality; it does not support the claim that smartphone overuse results in depression. Neither section has a page number in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Matar Boumosleh, J., & Jaalouk, D.
- Affiliations
- Notre Dame University – Louaize (LB)
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2017-08-04
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- e0182239
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5544206
- OpenAlex
- W2743889434
- Cited by
- 668
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 66 · 2024: 88 · 2023: 103 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 96 · 2020: 92 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 114.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Keywords
- smartphone addiction, depression, anxiety, university students, compulsive smartphone use, sleep quality, predictors of addiction, Lebanese university students
- MeSH terms
- Smartphone, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Lebanon, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Students, Universities, Behavior, Addictive, Young Adult
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