Temporal relationships between mobile phone addiction and mental health: A longitudinal network analysis study from non-clinical adolescents.

OBJECTIVES

Previous psychometric network models have been limited to cross-sectional designs, while current longitudinal models also suffer from methodological shortcomings. This study challenges and refines previous longitudinal psychometric network models, addressing the temporal and static correlational relationships between mobile phone addiction and mental health symptoms, as well as gender differences.

METHODS

We conducted a one-year follow-up study involving 1,479 adolescents (M age=15.28±1.51, 786 males), and measured mobile phone addiction (inability to control cravings, feeling anxious and lost, withdrawal and escape, productivity loss) and mental health (obsessive compulsive tendencies, paranoid, hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, academic stress, maladaptation, emotional disturbance, psychological imbalance). Panel graphical vector autoregression network analysis was used to establish temporal, contemporaneous, and between-subjects networks, and estimate node centrality. Network comparisons were additionally performed between gender.

RESULTS

The majority of mobile phone addiction predicted subsequent mental health symptoms, especially inability to control cravings, productivity loss, and anxiety. Hostility, emotional disturbance, or academic stress were also involved in temporal, contemporaneous, and between-subjects associations, respectively. There were no significant differences in the global metrics of the gender subgroup network, but these differences were reflected at the micro-level. Primarily, it revealed a temporal link between productivity loss and anxiety for females, whereas for males, it highlighted inability to control cravings and academic stress.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings supplement the longitudinal evidence from a psychometric perspective, revealing the complex network interactions between mobile phone addiction and mental health, and highlighting the key associations between gendered mobile phone use and psychological problems as intervention targets.