The impact of smartphone addiction on comorbid loneliness, anxiety, and depression in Chinese adolescents: mechanisms and mediators

Abstract Smartphone addiction can increase the likelihood of loneliness, anxiety, and depression (LAD), and these emotional states tend to be comorbid. However, few studies have explored the influence of smartphone addiction on comorbid LAD (CLAD) or the mechanism underlying this influence. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of CLAD among Chinese adolescents and to examine the impact of smartphone addiction on CLAD, as well as the mediating roles of negative cognitive emotion regulation strategies (NCERSs) and emotion regulation difficulties (ERDs). In total, 1520 Chinese adolescents (M = 11.41 years, standard deviation [SD] = 0.50 years) participated in a cross-sectional online survey. The results revealed four CLAD categories (prevalence of four categories: 5.5%, 1.6%, 1.7%, and 1.8%). Additionally, our findings revealed that (i) smartphone addiction directly elevated the likelihood of CLAD; (ii) smartphone addiction indirectly heightened the likelihood of CLAD through the mediating role of ERDs; (iii) smartphone addiction indirectly increased the likelihood of CLAD through the sequential mediation of specific NCERSs (self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing, and blaming others) and ERDs; and (iv) smartphone addiction indirectly increased the likelihood of CLAD through the mediating effect of catastrophizing. These results indicated that 10.6% of the surveyed Chinese adolescents exhibited CLAD and that NCERSs and ERDs mediated the influence of smartphone addiction on CLAD. Identifying the prevalence of CLAD and its influence,e and the underlying mechanism of smartphone addiction further enriched the existing literature, which conformed to the actual social life.