IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p15903-d987571.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Undergraduates’ Social Isolation on Smartphone Addiction: The Roles of Academic Anxiety and Social Media Use

Author

Listed:
  • Youlai Zeng

    (School of Education, Liaoning Normal University, 850 Huanghe Road, Dalian 116029, China)

  • Jiahui Zhang

    (School of Education, Liaoning Normal University, 850 Huanghe Road, Dalian 116029, China)

  • Jiaxin Wei

    (School of Education, Liaoning Normal University, 850 Huanghe Road, Dalian 116029, China)

  • Shunyu Li

    (Center for Teacher Education Research in Xinjiang, Xinjiang Normal University, 100 Guanjing Road, Urumqi 830017, China)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has an adverse effect on the physical health of societies and individuals. One important concern is the effect of social isolation on the mental health of undergraduates, such as academic anxiety, smartphone addiction and other social psychological problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate associations among undergraduates’ social isolation in this special context, social media use for obtaining information about the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., communicative and non-communicative), academic anxiety, and smartphone addiction. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from May to June in 2022 and a total of 388 undergraduates were included. The results showed significant positive associations between social isolation and smartphone addiction and academic anxiety. Furthermore, academic anxiety played a mediating role in the effect of social isolation on smartphone addiction, which was moderated by non-communicative social media use. Some theoretical and practical implications as well as research limitations are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Youlai Zeng & Jiahui Zhang & Jiaxin Wei & Shunyu Li, 2022. "The Impact of Undergraduates’ Social Isolation on Smartphone Addiction: The Roles of Academic Anxiety and Social Media Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-16, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15903-:d:987571
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15903/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/15903/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ismael Salamah Albursan & Mohammad Farhan Al. Qudah & Hafidha Sulaiman Al-Barashdi & Salaheldin Farah Bakhiet & Eqbal Darandari & Sumayyah S. Al-Asqah & Heba Ibraheem Hammad & Mohammed M. Al-Khadher &, 2022. "Smartphone Addiction among University Students in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prevalence, Relationship to Academic Procrastination, Quality of Life, Gender and Educational Stage," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Natasha Parent & Bowen Xiao & Claire Hein-Salvi & Jennifer Shapka, 2022. "Should We Be Worried about Smartphone Addiction? An Examination of Canadian Adolescents’ Feelings of Social Disconnection in the Time of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-10, July.
    3. Anna Maria Annoni & Serena Petrocchi & Anne-Linda Camerini & Laura Marciano, 2021. "The Relationship between Social Anxiety, Smartphone Use, Dispositional Trust, and Problematic Smartphone Use: A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    5. Liat Turgeman & Inbar Hefner & Maayan Bazon & Or Yehoshua & Aviv Weinstein, 2020. "Studies on the Relationship between Social Anxiety and Excessive Smartphone Use and on the Effects of Abstinence and Sensation Seeking on Excessive Smartphone Use," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-11, February.
    6. Zhiqiang Ren & Jianyi Tan & Baoying Huang & Jinqun Cheng & Yanhong Huang & Peng Xu & Xuanbi Fang & Hongjuan Li & Dongmei Zhang & Yanhui Gao, 2022. "Association between 24-Hour Movement Behaviors and Smartphone Addiction among Adolescents in Foshan City, Southern China: Compositional Data Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-13, August.
    7. Ruijie Gong & Yinghuan Zhang & Rusi Long & Rui Zhu & Sicong Li & Xinyi Liu & Suping Wang & Yong Cai, 2021. "The Impact of Social Network Site Addiction on Depression in Chinese Medical Students: A Serial Multiple Mediator Model Involving Loneliness and Unmet Interpersonal Needs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-8, August.
    8. Moti Zwilling, 2022. "The Impact of Nomophobia, Stress, and Loneliness on Smartphone Addiction among Young Adults during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Israeli Case Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Umberto Volpe & Laura Orsolini & Virginio Salvi & Umberto Albert & Claudia Carmassi & Giuseppe Carrà & Francesca Cirulli & Bernardo Dell’Osso & Mario Luciano & Giulia Menculini & Maria Giulia Nanni & , 2022. "COVID-19-Related Social Isolation Predispose to Problematic Internet and Online Video Gaming Use in Italy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-23, January.
    10. Hu, Tao & Wang, Ying & Lin, Ling & Tang, Wanjie, 2021. "The mediating role of daytime sleepiness between problematic smartphone use and post-traumatic symptoms in COVID-19 home-refined adolescents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    11. Roger O’Sullivan & Annette Burns & Gerard Leavey & Iracema Leroi & Vanessa Burholt & James Lubben & Julianne Holt-Lunstad & Christina Victor & Brian Lawlor & Mireya Vilar-Compte & Carla M. Perissinott, 2021. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Loneliness and Social Isolation: A Multi-Country Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-18, September.
    12. Jing Guan & Cuiping Wu & Dandan Wei & Qingqing Xu & Juan Wang & Hualiang Lin & Chongjian Wang & Zhenxing Mao, 2021. "Prevalence and Factors for Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic among College Students in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-11, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fan, Rui & Xu, Ke & Zhao, Jichang, 2018. "An agent-based model for emotion contagion and competition in online social media," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 495(C), pages 245-259.
    2. Nour El Houda Ben Amor & Mohamed Nabil Mzoughi, 2023. "Do Millennials’ Motives for Using Snapchat Influence the Effectiveness of Snap Ads?," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    3. Schmidt, Christoph G. & Wuttke, David A. & Heese, H. Sebastian & Wagner, Stephan M., 2023. "Antecedents of public reactions to supply chain glitches," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    4. Mahan, Joseph E. & Seo, Won Jae & Jordan, Jeremy S. & Funk, Daniel, 2015. "Exploring the impact of social networking sites on running involvement, running behavior, and social life satisfaction," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 182-192.
    5. Molina, Arturo & Fernández, Alejandra C. & Gómez, Mar & Aranda, Evangelina, 2017. "Differences in the city branding of European capitals based on online vs. offline sources of information," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 28-39.
    6. Carmela Milano, 2015. "Democratization or else vulgarization of cultural capital? The role of social networks in theater’s audience behavior," Working Papers CEB 15-004, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Yucheng Zhang & Zhiling Wang & Lin Xiao & Lijun Wang & Pei Huang, 2023. "Discovering the evolution of online reviews: A bibliometric review," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, December.
    8. Hassan Danaeefard & Ali Farazmand & Akram Dastyari, 2023. "The Iranian Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-9) Crisismanship: Understanding the Contributions of National Culture, Media, Technology and Economic System," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1661-1682, December.
    9. Richey, Michelle & Ravishankar, M.N., 2019. "The role of frames and cultural toolkits in establishing new connections for social media innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 325-333.
    10. Jamal El-Den & Pratap Adikhari & Pratap Adikhari, 2017. "Social media in the service of social entrepreneurship: Identifying factors for better services," Journal of Advances in Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Yi-Hsing Hsieh, vol. 3(2), pages 105-114.
    11. Smith, Andrew N. & Fischer, Eileen & Yongjian, Chen, 2012. "How Does Brand-related User-generated Content Differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter?," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 102-113.
    12. Bo Yang & Chao Liu & Xusen Cheng & Xi Ma, 2022. "Understanding Users' Group Behavioral Decisions About Sharing Articles in Social Media: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 819-842, August.
    13. Gal-Tzur, Ayelet & Grant-Muller, Susan M. & Kuflik, Tsvi & Minkov, Einat & Nocera, Silvio & Shoor, Itay, 2014. "The potential of social media in delivering transport policy goals," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 115-123.
    14. Fathey Mohammed & Nabil Hasan Al-Kumaim & Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani & Yousef Fazea, 2023. "The Impact of Social Media Shared Health Content on Protective Behavior against COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-16, January.
    15. Fazal Ur Rehman & Rosman Bin Md Yusoff & Fadillah Binti Ismail & Farwida Javed, 2019. "What is Brand? Some Insights in the Historical Development," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 10(4), pages 8-13.
    16. Sana Sadiq & Khadija Anasse & Najib Slimani, 2022. "The impact of mobile phones on high school students: connecting the research dots," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 30(1), pages 252-270, April.
    17. Drummond, Conor & O'Toole, Thomas & McGrath, Helen, 2022. "Social Media resourcing of an entrepreneurial firm network: Collaborative mobilisation processes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 171-187.
    18. Bojana Suzić & Miroslav Karlíček & Václav Stříteský, 2016. "Adoption of Social Media for Public Relations by Museums," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-16.
    19. Monica Patrut, 2015. "Candidates In The Presidential Elections In Romania (2014): The Use Of Social Media In Political Marketing," Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition, "Vasile Alecsandri" University of Bacau, Faculty of Economic Sciences, issue 21.
    20. Marcel Rosenberger & Christiane Lehrer & Reinhard Jung, 0. "Integrating data from user activities of social networks into public administrations," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-14.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:15903-:d:987571. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.