The structural relationships among adolescents’mobile phone dependency, trajectories of depression, and self-regulated learning abilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships between Korean adolescents’mobile phone dependency, trajectories of depression, and self-regulated learning abilities. To achieve these goals, structural equation modeling analysis was conducted, using the 3rd, 5th and 7th wave of the data on 4th graders taken from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey. The results can be summarized as follows. First, growth-curve longitudinal analysis indicates that depression in 6th through 10th grade has increased. Second, mobile phone dependency among adolescents at 6th grade has a significant effect on both the initial value and the rate of change in depression. Also, the initial value and the rate of change in depression have significant relationships with mobile phone dependency at 10th grade. Moreover, both increased levels of mobile phone dependency and the rate of change in depression significantly influence adolescents’self-regulated learning abilities at 10th grade. Based on a longitudinal data set, these findings demonstrate the causal relationships between Korean adolescents’trajectories of depression and their mobile phone dependency. The findings also provide a comprehensive framework with implications for adolescents’development through an understanding of the relationships between adolescents’depression and mobile phone dependency, which impact their self-regulated learning abilities.