Longitudinal associations among cumulative ecological risk, maladaptive cognitions and smartphone addiction in Chinese university freshmen: A two-wave study

Although studies have explored many possible antecedents of smartphone addiction (SA), the longitudinal association between the cumulative effect of multiple ecological risks and SA and its mechanisms are unclear. Drawing on the conversation of the cumulative risk model and cognitive-behavioral model, the present study aimed to test the longitudinal association between cumulative ecological risk (CER) and SA and the mediating roles of maladaptive cognitions with a two-wave design separated by one year. A total of 1551 (at first survey, Mage = 18.38, SD = 0.71) Chinese university freshmen finished the two measurements. The results showed that (i) CER and SA could positively predict each other across time; (ii) the quadratic of CER could negatively predict SA across time, which was presented with a “saturation model”; (iii) maladaptive cognitions played bidirectional mediating roles completely in the association between CER and SA across time; and (iv) the quadratic of CER could negatively predict SA through the mediating role of maladaptive cognitions across time. These results provide us with a global understanding of the longitudinal association between CER and SA and its mediating mechanism. Our study also benefits interventions for SA by providing implications regarding the critical number of risk factor exposures.