The relationship between academic stress and adolescents’ problematic smartphone usage

Abstract

Background: Problematic smartphone usage among adolescents and young adults is a growing concern.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between academic stress and problematic smartphone usage, and, more importantly, whether problem-focused coping moderates the association between academic stress and depressive symptoms.

Method: The sample comprised of 316 middle school students (46.8% males, M = 13.74 years old, SD = 0.87) in Southwest China. The results showed that depressive symptoms mediated the association between academic stress and problematic smartphone usage.

Results: This indirect relationship was conditioned by the degree of problem-focused coping. Specifically, those with lower or moderate levels of problem-focused coping tended to report more depressive symptoms, which in turn led to a higher score on problematic smartphone usage. However, this indirect relationship was weakened for those with higher levels of problem-focused coping.

Conclusions: Thus, problem-focused coping should be cultivated when designing mental health interventions to reduce problematic smartphone usage among adolescents.

Keywords:

• Academic stress
• depressive symptoms
• problematic smartphone usage
• problem-focused coping
• adolescents

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [No. SWU1609130].