ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1671800
This article is part of the Research TopicThe predictors, trajectory of development, negative outcomes and intervention of pathological Internet use among adolescentsView all articles
The relationship between social support and smartphone addiction among Chinese college students: the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating role of meaning in life
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
- 2Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China
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Background: Smartphone addiction has become a significant public health concern among Chinese college students, adversely affecting their academic performance, social interactions, and psychological well-being. Based on the social support buffering hypothesis and compensatory internet use theory, loneliness may mediate the relationship between social support and smartphone addiction, with meaning in life potentially moderating this process. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was employed. Valid data were collected from 2076 Chinese college students using the Social Support Rating Scale for College Students, the 8-item UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, and the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 27 and the PROCESS macro to examine the mediating effect and the moderated mediation effect. Results: Social support was significantly negatively correlated with smartphone addiction. Loneliness mediated this relationship, accounting for 64.71% of the total effect. Meaning in life significantly moderated the path from loneliness to smartphone addiction. Simple slope analysis indicated that the positive predictive effect of loneliness on smartphone addiction was stronger for individuals with high levels of meaning in life. Conclusion: Social support may reduce the risk of addiction by alleviating loneliness; however, higher levels of meaning in life may amplify, rather than weaken, the negative effect of loneliness. This study reveals the complex interplay between social and existential factors in addiction and suggests that future interventions should focus on enhancing social support.
Keywords: social support, Smartphone addiction, Loneliness, meaning in life, college students
Received: 23 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhang, Zhang and Wang. 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:
Jialei Liu, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
Yu Zhang, Chengdu University, Chengdu, China
Yongli Zhang, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, 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.