ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1634387
Examining the Multiple Mediation Effects of Creative Personality and Self-Esteem on the Relationship Between Exercise and Smartphone Dependence in Adolescents
Provisionally accepted
- Dongguk University Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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The widespread use of smartphones has raised growing concerns about smartphone dependence among adolescents. This study investigates how exercise participation reduces smartphone dependence by examining the mediating roles of creative personality and self-esteem. Specifically, we examined a multiple mediation model to test how these two psychological constructs function both individually and sequentially. Using secondary data from the fifth wave of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018, we analyzed responses from 2,288 middle school students. Descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlations, and multiple mediation analyses using bootstrapping were conducted. Results showed that greater exercise participation was associated with lower levels of smartphone dependence. While self-esteem directly mediated this relationship, creative personality influenced it indirectly through its effect on self-esteem. The sequential mediation model demonstrated that exercise participation can enhance creative personality, which in turn may increase self-esteem, potentially leading to reduced smartphone dependence. These findings highlight the psychological benefits of physical activity and suggest that promoting exercise may serve as an effective strategy for addressing adolescent smartphone dependence by strengthening self-worth and creative engagement.
Keywords: Smartphone dependence, Exercise participation, Creative personality, self-esteem, Adolescent Health
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kim. 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: Inwoo Kim, Dongguk University Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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