ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1608607
Unmet Psychological Needs Underlying Mobile Phone Dependence among Medical Undergraduates: A Qualitative Study Based on the Basic Psychological Needs Theory
Provisionally accepted- 1Department of Nursing, The Affiliated Hospital, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China
- 2School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China
- 3Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Jiangsu College of Nursing, Huaian, China
- 4School of Continuing Education, Guiyang Healthcare Vocational University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
- 5Department of Orthopedics and Center for Orthopedic Diseases Research, Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China
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Background: Mobile phone dependence is recognized as a global public health concern, particularly among medical students. The unmet psychological needs reflected in mobile phone dependence among undergraduate medical students remain unclear. Our study aimed to explore the unmet psychological needs underlying mobile phone dependence among medical undergraduates from the Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT) perspective through interviews.Methods: Fifteen undergraduate medical students exhibiting mobile phone dependence were recruited through purposive sampling for in-depth, semi-structured interviews at a medical university in China. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's deductive thematic analysis method.Results: Our study identified four main themes and nine subthemes. The four main themes are (1) autonomy, which includes low self-regulation, reality pressure evasion, and negative affect; (2) competence, which includes achievement through mobile applications and effects on social performance abilities; and (3) relatedness, which includes social network maintenance and digital medical identity formation, (4) meaning in life, which includes life direction confusion and value confusion. Notably, 46.7% of participants identified relatedness needs as the dominant factor in their mobile phone dependence.Our study uniquely found that mobile phones serve as tools for medical students to compensate for unmet basic psychological needs, manifested as pressure evasion, achievement-seeking, and professional identity construction, while also revealing meaning in life that extends beyond the BPNT frameworks. Our study recommends that medical schools provide autonomy-supportive environments, create opportunities for skill verification through EPA-based assessments and simulations, and establish mentoring systems with digital platforms for professional development. School psychologists and counselors should implement evidence-based interventions like mindfulness training and group self-regulation programs to foster healthy mobile phone usage.
Keywords: Mobile phone dependence, Medical students, Unmet basic psychological needs, Basic psychological needs theory, qualitative research
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 03 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Guo, Huang, Liu and Zhang. 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:
Gang Liu, Department of Orthopedics and Center for Orthopedic Diseases Research, Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China
Baolu Zhang, School of Nursing, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, Luzhou, Sichuan Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.