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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1542243
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring the Interconnections between Smartphone Addiction Negative Emotions, and Creativity View all articles

The Relationship Between Smartphone Addiction and Sleep Disorder Among College Students: Negative Emotions as a Mediator and Gender as a Moderator

Provisionally accepted
Siyi Li Siyi Li 1Yingying Deng Yingying Deng 1*Lihong Cai Lihong Cai 1*Linlin Wu Linlin Wu 2*
  • 1 Shantou University, Shantou, China
  • 2 Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China

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

    Background: College students are disproportionately affected by smartphone addiction, which has been linked to various health impairments, including sleep disorders. This study explores the relationship between smartphone addiction and sleep disorders, with a focus on negative emotions as a mediator and gender as a moderator.Methods: Cluster sampling was used to survey 1056 Chinese college students. The Mobile Phone Addiction Index, Negative Affect Scale, and Sleep Disorder Scale were administered. Versions of SPSS 27.0 and PROCESS macro 4.0 were used for data analysis, employing Models 15 and 4 to examine moderation and mediation, respectively.Results: A strong direct correlation was identified between smartphone addiction and sleep disorder, with negative emotions mediating this relationship, accounting for 33.7% of the effect. Gender significantly moderated the mediation process, with females demonstrating a greater correlation than males between sleep disorders and negative emotions.Negative emotions partially mediated smartphone addiction's association with sleep disorder, whereas gender significantly moderated this mediation. These findings underscore the complex dynamics among smartphone addiction, emotional well-being, and sleep among college students.

    Keywords: college students, Smartphone addiction, sleep disorder, Negative emotions, gender

    Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 16 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Li, Deng, Cai and Wu. 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:
    Yingying Deng, Shantou University, Shantou, China
    Lihong Cai, Shantou University, Shantou, China
    Linlin Wu, Xiamen Institute of Technology, Xiamen, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.