Survey study reveals a 21.38% prevalence of problematic smartphone use in college freshmen, indicating depression and anxiety are central predisposing factors.
Key Points
To assess the prevalence of problematic smartphone use among undergraduate freshmen and evaluate the relative importance and network interactions of individual predisposing variables.
Administered an online questionnaire assessing predisposing psychological variables to undergraduate freshmen (N=1,118; 666 women, 452 men; mean age 18.19 ± 0.66 years) at a university in Anhui Province, China.
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) occurred at a prevalence rate of 21.38% among the surveyed freshmen.
Levels of predisposing variables differed significantly between PSU and non-PSU groups, with depression emerging as the core variable strongly linked to anxiety.
Network analysis demonstrated significant differences in the overall structural organization of predisposing variables between PSU and non-PSU groups.