Association of smartphone use with depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality, and internet addiction. Empirical evidence from a smartphone application

Abstract

A growing body of evidence has demonstrated an association between problematic smartphone use and psychopathological behavior (e.g., internet addiction, depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep quality). However, little is yet known whether problematic and general smartphone use co-occur with depression and whether internet use, stress, anxiety and sleep quality moderate this relationship. The aim of this study was to examine the psychological mechanisms underlying extensive smartphone use and depression using multiple regression and path analysis (PROCESS macro) in a sample of university students. Our findings demonstrated a negative correlation of smartphone use with anxiety, stress, and sleep quality. Extensive smartphone use is related to depression through the mediation of stress; increased smartphone use tends to reduce stress. Moreover, depression leads to higher levels of smartphone use revealing a bi-directional pathway. Taken together, our findings provide solid evidence for a bi-directional hybrid view considering the association between extensive smartphone use and depression mediated by stress. The present study results may help national health authorities to improve the prevention of depression related to modern technology use.