Mobile Phone Addiction, Emotion Regulation, Mindfulness, and Self-Control Among Adolescents: A Serial Mediation Analysis

This study aimed to examine the mediation effect of mindfulness and self-control in the relationship between emotion regulation and mobile phone addiction in Turkish adolescents. Additionally, the psychometric properties of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form and the Self-Control Scale were investigated on adolescents in this study. Our findings indicated that mobile phone addiction is positively correlated with dysfunctional emotion regulation and negatively associated with self-control and mindfulness. Furthermore, dysfunctional emotion regulation was negatively associated with self-control, and mindfulnessand self-control were positively correlated with mindfulness. Dysfunctional emotion regulation, self-control and mindfulness had direct significant effects on mobile phone addiction. Mindfulness and self-control were found to partially mediate the association between dysfunctional emotion regulation and mobile phone addiction. Findings from this investigation confirm that the degree of mobile phone addiction is heightened by dysfunctional emotion regulation; however, these associations can be mitigated by practicing mindfulness and self-control. In other words, dysfunctional emotion regulation increases mobile phone addiction through low self-control and mindfulness; however, mindfulness and self-control practices can reduce these effects.