ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1585302
Acculturative Stress, Loneliness, Smartphone Addiction, L2 Emotions, and Creativity Among International Students in China: A Structural Equation Model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shantou University, Shantou, China
- 2De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom
- 3University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
- 4Peking University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
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This study investigated the complex interplay between acculturative stress and creativity among international students in China by examining the mediating roles of loneliness, smartphone addiction, and second language (L2) emotions using structural equation modeling. Analysis of survey data from 213 international students revealed that acculturative stress significantly predicted smartphone addiction both directly (β = 0.372, p < 0.001) and indirectly through loneliness as a mediator (β = 0.169, p < 0.005). Furthermore, acculturative stress influenced foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) through a chain mediation of loneliness and smartphone addiction (β = 0.135, p < 0.005). Regarding creativity, both acculturative stress (β = 0.300, p < 0.001) and foreign language enjoyment (FLE, β = 0.310, p < 0.001) positively predicted creative activities, which subsequently influenced creative achievement through mediation (β = 0.700, p < 0.001). FLCA demonstrated a direct positive relationship with creative achievement (β = 0.118, p = 0.016). These findings support the dualpathway model of creativity and suggest that long-term moods (e.g., acculturative stress) and situational emotions (e.g., FLE and FLCA) may differentially affect creativity, aligning with the Hierarchical Model of Affect, Mood, and Emotion, advancing the understanding of international students' cross-cultural adaptation in the digital age.
Keywords: Acculturative stress, Loneliness, Smartphone addiction, L2 learning emotions, creativity, structural equation model
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 24 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 GAO, Xu, Romano and Hu. 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: Xuhui Hu, Shantou University, Shantou, China
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