Relationship of Smartphone Addiction with Cyberbullying, Alcohol Use, Depression, and Anxiety Among University Students

Smartphone addiction is one of the major social issues among young people these days. The current study aims to identify the determinants of smartphone addiction and examine the association between smartphone addiction and multiple behavioral/psychological problems. The study sample consisted of 1105 university students from Singapore. Students in the high-risk smartphone use group reported higher levels of smartphone addiction, cybervictimization, and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Depressive and anxiety symptoms showed a positive association with smartphone addiction. Additionally, both depressive and anxiety symptoms had significant indirect effects when assessing two separate simple mediation models. When testing the parallel mediation model, the indirect effect of cybervictimization on smartphone addiction occurred through anxiety but not depression. Based on these findings, the current study proposed the implementation of routine screening and the provision of multi-level services in education settings. Nevertheless, the study has limitations related to the study population and the use of self-reported questionnaires.