Perceived Discrimination, Loneliness, Social Anxiety, and Smartphone Addiction Among Rural Left‐Behind Children in C hina: A Two‐Wave Longitudinal Cross‐Lagged Panel Study

This study examined prospective associations between perceived discrimination (PD) and smartphone addiction (SMA), and the mediating roles of loneliness and social anxiety, using a two-wave longitudinal cross-lagged panel design. A sample of 1773 rural left-behind children (aged 10-15 years, mean age = 13.37, SD = 1.44; 822 boys [46.4%] and 951 girls [53.6%]) was assessed at two waves separated by 6 months. Results showed that PD at T1 exhibited significant cross-lagged associations with SMA, loneliness, and social anxiety. Loneliness and social anxiety each independently mediated the prospective PD-SMA association. Bidirectional prospective associations were observed between loneliness and social anxiety. Bootstrap analyses identified two sequential contemporaneous-prospective indirect pathways: (a) concurrent PD-loneliness covariation at T1 prospectively predicting social anxiety T2, which in turn predicted SMA T2 (β = 0.008, 95% CI [0.004, 0.013]), and (b) concurrent PD-social anxiety covariation at T1 prospectively predicting loneliness T2, which in turn predicted SMA T2 (β = 0.010, 95% CI [0.007, 0.015]). Taken together, the findings indicate that perceived discrimination is prospectively associated with smartphone addiction through indirect pathways involving loneliness and social anxiety. Practical implications for school-based interventions targeting left-behind children are discussed.