Relationships between daily emotional experiences and smartphone addiction among college students: moderated mediating role of gender and mental health problems

Front Psychol. 2024 Dec 12:15:1490338. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1490338. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Introduction: The theoretical model of smartphone addiction highlights the role of emotional factors in fostering addictive behaviors. However, most research has focused on long-term emotional states and pathologies, often overlooking the immediate effects of daily emotional fluctuations on smartphone usage and their mechanisms.

Methods: Our study employed an online survey and a moderated parallel mediation model to explore how daily emotional experiences influence smartphone addiction among college students. We analyzed the mediating roles of anxiety, stress, and depression, and the moderating effect of gender.

Results: Our findings indicate that daily negative emotional experiences were positively correlated with smartphone addiction, with stress serving as a significant mediator in the relationship between both positive and negative emotional experiences and addiction. Interestingly, positive emotional experiences directly increased smartphone addiction risk among female students, but they also significantly reduced stress and depression, especially pronounced in women. Further analysis indicated that positive emotions primarily mitigate addiction through reducing stress, a pathway especially significant in females.

Discussion: The study not only confirms the substantial impact of emotional experiences on addiction but also deepens our understanding of their mechanisms, underlining the importance of considering the nature of emotional experiences and gender-specific effects in devising prevention and intervention strategies.

Keywords: anxiety; daily emotional experiences; depression; gender; smartphone addiction; stress.

Associated data

  • figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.26915656.v1

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Planning Projects of Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences (24NDJC193YB) and the research project of Zhejiang Federation of Social Sciences (2025N029).