Interaction Among Smartphone Addiction, Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Systems and Mental Health Factors Among Chinese Undergraduate Student: A Study Using Network Analysis

Background: Smartphone addiction, which represents a behavioral concern, has been found to correlate with a diverse range of mental health problems among the undergraduate students. Meanwhile, the modes of behavioral inhibition/activation showed specific characteristics in smartphone addiction individuals. Therefore, clarifying the interaction of mental health and behavioral modes with smartphone addiction is urgent. Here, we used a cross-sectional design, aiming to explore the network interactions among smartphone addiction, mental health (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness and life satisfaction), and the behavioral inhibition/activation system (BIS/BAS) in undergraduate students. Methods: We employed network analysis and community detection in R, to investigate the centrality and edge connections, which are the mainly index of key factors and interaction effects between factors respectively. The study was carried out among 701 participants with an average age of 18.27 ± 1.57 years old, all of whom had completed self-report scales. Results: The network analysis results suggested that depression and anxiety, the behavioral activation of fun seeking, reward responsiveness and behavioral inhibition had significantly higher centrality than the other mental health and BIS/BAS factors respectively. When combining the connections of network analysis and community detection, the stronger connections mainly present in the inner domain of mental health factors and the BIS/BAS, respectively. The findings regarding the transdomain connections imply that stress is likely to serve as a mediator in the relationships between smartphone addiction and both depression as well as BAS-Drive. Conclusion: Therefore, the current study suggests that although common psychological and behavioral system problems may play a dominant role in smartphone addiction among undergraduate students, it is still necessary to consider whether other factors such as stress may play a potential moderating role. The new insight will help to enhance mental health and facilitating proper smartphone use management to avoid the aggravation of addiction problems among undergraduate student.