The circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction: evidence based on the diary method

Abstract

The link between civilization and technology has long been a hotspot of research around the world. Mobile phone addiction has become a common social phenomenon with advances in society and technology, wreaking havoc on people’s emotional health, physical fitness, and personal connections. Considering the positive effects of mindfulness, this study used the diary method to explore the relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction based on the mindfulness reperceiving model. We conducted a 14-day diary study among 198 Chinese youth participants. The results showed that there was a circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction: mindfulness of the previous day could significantly negatively predict mobile phone addiction of the following day, and vice versa. These results, based on the mindfulness reperceiving model, effectively extend theories and profoundly reveal the circular argument relationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction. Besides, it also provides new thought for the mechanism of the interrelationship between mindfulness and mobile phone addiction, as an important theoretical support for the intervention of mobile phone addiction from the perspective of mindfulness.

Keywords:

• Diary method
• mindfulness
• mobile phone addiction

Ethics approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study protocol was approved by the Ethica Committee of the Cognition and Human Behavior KeyLaboratory of Hunan Province, the Hunan Normal University (410081).

Ethical information

The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Hunan Normal University. All participants provided informed consents before completing the questionnaires, and were paid after completing the whole questionnaires.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the project by Hunan Province Philosophy and Social Science Project (18YBA324).