Towards understanding the relationship between smartphone addiction and psychological well-being

Abstract

Smartphone use is increasing worldwide. The growing popularity calls for the attention on the possible addictive use. This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between smartphone addiction and other psychological well-being correlates, including neuroticism, loneliness and escapism. A serial multiple mediator model was developed hypothetically based on literature. With structural equation modeling, we tested the model in a sample of 257 community adults. Result indicated a satisfactory fit for our hypothetical structural model, χ2 (394, N = 257) = 484.259, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.962, TLI = 0.959, RMSEA = 0.030 (90% CI: 0.020, 0.039). With bootstrapping technique to examine the indirect effects in the model, escapism was shown to be an important predictor of smartphone addiction. It was found to mediate the relationship between neuroticism and smartphone addiction. An indirect effect that linked neuroticism to loneliness, then to escapism and lastly to smartphone addiction was also significant. However, loneliness was found not to predict smartphone addiction when controlled for escapism. More is discussed below.