The mediating role of smartphone addiction in the relationship between desire for being liked and psychological resilience

Purpose This study examined the association between the desire for being liked and psychological resilience among university students enrolled in faculties of sports sciences in Türkiye and investigated whether smartphone addiction statistically mediated this association. Method A cross-sectional correlational design was employed. Participants were 237 university students (159 males and 78 females) enrolled in faculties of sports sciences in Türkiye, recruited using a convenience sampling method. Data were collected using the Desire for Being Liked Scale, the Smartphone Addiction Scale–Short Version, and the Brief Resilience Scale. Pearson correlation analysis and a bootstrap mediation analysis (PROCESS Macro Model 4; 5,000 resamples) were conducted to examine the indirect association between the variables. Gender was included as a covariate in the mediation analysis due to the unequal distribution of male and female participants in the sample; its inclusion did not materially alter the estimated direct or indirect effects. Results The desire for being liked was positively associated with smartphone addiction ( B = 0.713, p < 0.001), whereas both the desire for being liked ( B = −0.137, p = 0.004) and smartphone addiction ( B = −0.066, p = 0.006) were negatively associated with psychological resilience. The indirect association between the desire for being liked and psychological resilience through smartphone addiction was statistically significant (indirect effect B = −0.047, 95% bootstrap CI [−0.094, −0.011]). The observed covariance pattern was compatible with the proposed mediation model; however, the final model explained a modest proportion of the variance in psychological resilience ( R 2 = 0.099). Conclusion The findings indicate that a stronger tendency to seek social approval was associated with higher levels of smartphone addiction and lower levels of psychological resilience. Smartphone addiction showed a statistically significant indirect association in the relationship between the desire for being liked and psychological resilience. Given the cross-sectional design and the modest explanatory power of the model, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than causal effects and may contribute to understanding psychosocial adjustment among university students in sports sciences.