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BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research article

The relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction: Testing mediation and moderation effects

Authors: Songli Mei, Gang Xu, Tingting Gao, Hui Ren, Jingyang Li

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

To explore the relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction as well as the mediating effects of mental health and the moderating role of being a single child or not.

Methods

A total of 1034 college students from Changchun were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI).

Results

Alexithymia was positively correlated with mental health and mobile phone addiction. Alexithymia had not only a direct impact on mobile phone addiction but also an indirect impact via mental health. For college students who were not only children, higher levels of alexithymia led to an increase in mobile phone addiction, whereas the influence of alexithymia on mobile phone addiction was much weaker among only children.

Conclusion

Mental health has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between alexithymia and mobile phone addiction, and the relationship was significantly moderated by whether students were only children or not.
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Metadata
Title
The relationship between college students’ alexithymia and mobile phone addiction: Testing mediation and moderation effects
Authors
Songli Mei
Gang Xu
Tingting Gao
Hui Ren
Jingyang Li
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1891-8

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