Mobile Phone Addiction and Alexithymia Among College Students: Effects of Social Anxiety and Core Self-Evaluation

This study explored possible mechanisms underlying the relationship between alexithymia and mobile phone addiction. The participants comprised 2,500 university students who were asked to complete the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Interaction Anxiousness Scale, the Core Self-evaluations Scale, and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index. The research found that social anxiety and core self-evaluation partially mediated the effect of alexithymia on mobile phone addiction, accounting for 22.5% and 42.4% of the total variance, respectively. When working sequentially, the relationship between alexithymia and mobile phone addiction was mediated by social anxiety and mobile phone addiction. The implications of the findings for preventing mobile phone addiction among college students are discussed.