AUTHOR=Hao Zejun , Jin Liangyi , Huang Jinzi , Lyu Ruibo , Cui Qian 

TITLE=Academic Burnout and Problematic Smartphone Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Effects of Anxiety and Resilience

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.725740

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.725740

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Academic burnout has been associated with problematic smartphone use. However, the mechanism underlying this relation has been inadequately explored during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p><p><bold>Materials and Methods:</bold> A total of 748 Chinese undergraduate students were recruited in the study who were measured with their levels of academic burnout, anxiety, resilience, and problematic smartphone use.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Our study showed that academic burnout significantly predicted problematic smartphone use both directly and indirectly via anxiety. By constructing a moderated mediation model, our study found that resilience moderated the direct impact and the second half of the indirect path (between anxiety and problematic smartphone use); however, with the moderation effects of resilience, both the indirect impact of academic burnout on problematic smartphone use <italic>via</italic> anxiety became insignificant.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Our findings brought additional evidence on the association between academic burnout and problematic smartphone use and significantly suggested the potential solution to alleviate the influences.</p>