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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1521453
This article is part of the Research Topic Addictive Disorders and Digital Medicine: Technology-based solutions for Addictive Disorders View all 8 articles

Network Analysis of Autism Traits and Problematic Mobile Phone Use and Their Associations with Depression among Chinese College Students

Provisionally accepted
Gang Liu Gang Liu Ya Liu Ya Liu *Chen Zongping Chen Zongping Siyuan Zhou Siyuan Zhou Lingfei Ma Lingfei Ma
  • Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The current study employed network analysis to examine the relationship between symptoms from factor level about autism traits and problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) and to explore their associations with depression. We measured the above three variables in 949 college students in China with Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS), Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Central and bridge symptoms were pinpointed through the examination of centrality index. In the AQ and PMPU network, results revealed that WD ("Withdrawal"), COR ("Cyberspace-oriented relationship") and OU ("Overuse") emerged as the core symptoms. AS ("Attention switching"), CO ("Communication") and COR ("Cyberspace-oriented relationship") were the most symptoms bridging the AQ and PMPU communities, suggesting that these symptoms could serve as focal points for interventions aimed at college students with concurrent autism traits and PMPU. SK ("Social skills"), COR ("Cyberspace-oriented relationship"), CO ("Communication"), and DLD ("Daily-life disturbance") were most strongly associated with depression. In addition, future research should consider various measurement tools and methods to investigate the location of AD ("Attention to detail"), because AD was an isolated symptom in the flow network of depression.

    Keywords: Autism traits, Problematic mobile phone use, Depression, Network analysis, college students

    Received: 01 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Liu, Liu, Zongping, Zhou and Ma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ya Liu, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing, China

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