Effect of Loneliness on Psychological Depression of Adolescent Smartphone Addicts: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Trust
,
Abstract
Background: As an important psychological antecedent of smartphone addiction, loneliness may have a far-reaching effect on the mental health of teenagers, especially their psychological depression. Interpersonal trust, which is an important psychological trait of individuals in social interaction, may play multiple mediating roles between loneliness and psychological depression.
Methods: Overall, 691 adolescent smartphone addicts in Henan Province, China were surveyed by a group questionnaire. Relevant data were collected via loneliness scale, psychological depression scale, and interpersonal trust scale (including overall trust, emotional trust, and reliableness). The effect of loneliness on the psychological depression of adolescent smartphone addicts was discussed via statistical analysis, and the multiple mediating roles played by interpersonal trust in this relationship were tested.
Results: Loneliness has a significantly positive effect on the psychological depression of adolescent smartphone addicts (P<0.01). Overall trust and emotional trust play a partial mediating role in the influence of loneliness on psychological depression, whereas reliableness plays a masking role in this influence relationship. Significant differences are observed in the influence of two factors—the length of smartphone use and the age—on the psychological depression of adolescent smartphone addicts (P<0.01).
Conclusion: This study reveals the effect of loneliness on the psychological depression of adolescent smartphone addicts and the mediating role of interpersonal trust. To reduce the risk of adolescent psychological depression, psychological health intervention measures should attach importance to the enhancement of interpersonal trust, especially overall and emotional trust.
1. Sahu M, Gandhi S, Sharma MK (2019). Mo-bile phone addiction among children and adolescents: a systematic review. J Addict Nurs, 30(4): 261–8.
2. Seo DG, Park Y, Kim MK, Park J (2016). Mobile phone dependency and its im-pacts on adolescents’ social and aca-demic behaviors. Comput Hum Behav, 63: 282–92.
3. Gao T, Li J, Zhang H, Gao J, Kong Y, Hu Y, Mei S (2018). The influence of alexi-thymia on mobile phone addiction: the role of depression, anxiety and stress. J Affect Disorders, 225: 761–6.
4. Leung L (2008). Linking psychological at-tributes to addiction and improper use of the mobile phone among adolescents in Hong Kong. J Child Media, 2(2): 93–113.
5. Yu S, Sussman S (2020). Does smartphone addiction fall on a continuum of addic-tive behaviors?. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(2): 422.
6. Zhitomirsky-Geffet M, Blau M (2016). Cross-generational analysis of predictive factors of addictive behavior in smartphone usage. Comput Hum Behav, 64: 682–93.
7. Weiss R (1975). Loneliness: the experience of emo-tional and social isolation. MIT press.
8. Heinrich LM, Gullone E (2006). The clini-cal significance of loneliness: a litera-ture review. Clin Psychol Rev, 26(6): 695–718.
9. Larson RW (1997). The emergence of soli-tude as a constructive domain of experi-ence in early adolescence. Child Dev, 68(1): 80–93.
10. Tan C, Pamuk M, Dönder A (2013). Loneli-ness and mobile phone. Procedia-Soc Be-hav Sci, 103: 606–11.
11. Choliz M (2012). Mobile-phone addiction in adolescence: the test of mobile phone dependence (TMD). Prog Heal Sci, 2(1): 33–44.
12. Dayapoglu N, Kavurmaci M, Karaman S (2016). The relationship between the problematic mobile phone use and life satisfaction, loneliness, and academic performance in nursing students. Int J Caring Sci, 9(2): 647–52.
13. Wang JL, Sheng JR, Wang HZ (2019). The association between mobile game addic-tion and depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. Front Public Health, 7: 247.
14. Lian SL, Sun XJ, Niu GF, Yang XJ, Zhou ZK, Yang C (2021). Mobile phone addic-tion and psychological distress among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of rumination and moderating role of the capacity to be alone. J Affect Disord, 279: 701–10.
15. Miller WR, Seligman ME (1975). Depres-sion and learned helplessness in man. J Abnorm Psychol, 84(3): 228–38.
16. Sartorius N, Üstün TB, Lecrubier Y, Wittchen HU (1996). Depression comorbid with anxiety: results from the WHO study on psychological disorders in primary health care. Br J Psychiatry Suppl, 168(S30): 38–43.
17. George MJ, Odgers CL (2015). Seven fears and the science of how mobile technol-ogies may be influencing adolescents in the digital age. Perspect Psychol Sci, 10(6): 832–51.
18. Rotter JB (1980). Interpersonal trust, trust-worthiness, and gullibility. Am Psychol, 35(1): 1–7.
19. Clarke A, Meredith PJ, Rose TA (2021). In-terpersonal trust reported by adoles-cents living with mental illness: a scop-ing review. Adolesc Res Rev, 6(2): 165–98.
20. Lapierre MA, Zhao P, Custer BE (2019). Short-term longitudinal relationships be-tween smartphone use/dependency and psychological well-being among late adolescents. J Adolesc Health, 65(5): 607–12.
21. Li C, Liu D, Dong Y (2019). Self-esteem and problematic smartphone use among ad-olescents: A moderated mediation mod-el of depression and interpersonal trust. Front Psychol, 10: 2872.
22. Usta E, Korkmaz Ö, Kurt I (2014). The ex-amination of individuals’ virtual loneli-ness states in Internet addiction and vir-tual environments in terms of inter-personal trust levels. Comput Hum Behav, 36: 214–24.
23. Chen X, Lian S, Cheng L, Zhu X (2024). In-terpersonal uncertainty and mobile phone addiction among Chinese college students: the mediating effect of social and emotional loneliness and the mod-erating effect of optimism. Curr Psychol, 43: 19317–29.
24. Bian M, Leung, L (2015). Linking loneliness, shyness, smartphone addiction symp-toms, and patterns of smartphone use to social capital. Soc Sci Comput Rev, 33(1): 61–79.
25. Yao MZ, Zhong ZJ (2014). Loneliness, so-cial contacts and Internet addiction: a cross-lagged panel study. Comput Hum Behav, 30: 164–70.
26. Johnson-George C, Swap WC (1982). Meas-urement of specific interpersonal trust: construction and validation of a scale to assess trust in a specific other. J Pers Soc Psychol, 43(6): 1306–17.
27. Oliveira J, Guerra S, Sousa L, Ribeiro O (2024). Solitude in old age: a scoping re-view of conceptualisations, associated factors and impacts. Aging Ment Health, 21: 220–7.
28. Momeñe J, Estévez A, Griffiths MD, Macía P, Herrero M, Olave L, Iruarrizaga I (2024). The impact of insecure attach-ment on emotional dependence on a partner: the mediating role of negative emotional rejection. Behav Sci-Basel, 14(10): 909.
29. Ingram I, Kelly PJ, Deane FP, Baker AL, Raftery DK (2018). Loneliness in treat-ment-seeking substance-dependent pop-ulations: validation of the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults–short version. J Dual Diagn, 14(4): 211–19.
30. Liu QQ, Yang XJ, Zhu XW, Zhang DJ (2021). Attachment anxiety, loneliness, rumination and mobile phone depend-ence: a cross-sectional analysis of a moderated mediation model. Curr Psy-chol, 40: 5134–44.
31. Simpson JA (2007). Foundations of inter-personal trust. Soc Psychol: Handbook Basic Prin, 2: 587–607.
32. Damsgaard JB, Overgaard CL, Birkelund R (2021). Personal recovery and depres-sion, taking existential and social aspects into account: a struggle with institutional structures, loneliness and identity. Int J Soc Psychiatry, 67(1): 7–14.
33. Holm AL, Severinsson E (2014). Surviving depressive ill‐health: a qualitative sys-tematic review of older persons' narra-tives. Nurs Health Sci, 16(1): 131–40.
34. Russell D, Peplau LA, Cutrona CE (1980). The revised UCLA loneliness scale: concurrent and discriminant validity ev-idence. J Pers Soc Psychol, 39(3): 472–80.
35. Zung WWK (1967). Factors influencing self-assessment of depression. J Consult Clin Psych, 31(3): 369-72.
36. Wolters NE, Mobach L, Wuthrich VM, Vonk P, Van der Heijde CM, Wiers RW, Rapee RM, Klein AM (2023). Emotional and social loneliness and their unique links with social isolation, depression and anxiety. J Affect Disord, 329, 207-217.
37. Liang C, Song Y, Wang B (2022). The influ-ence of social function of mobile game augmented reality and virtual reality en-vironment on mobile phone users’ ad-diction. Wirel Commun Mob Com, 2022: 2903124.
38. Roberts J, Yaya L, Manolis C (2014). The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students. J Behav Addict, 3(4): 254–65.
39. Wang H, Chen X (2023). Intervention effect of mindfulness-based mental health ed-ucation therapy on adolescents mobile phone addiction and cognitive tenden-cy. Iran J Public Health, 52(12): 2563–71.
40. Zhang MM, Ma Y, Du LT, Wang K, Li Z. Zhu WL, Sun YH, Lu L, Bao YP, Li SX (2022). Sleep disorders and non-sleep circadian disorders predict depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 134: 104532.
41. Kronfeld-Schor N, Einat H (2012). Circadi-an rhythms and depression: human psy-chopathology and animal models. Neu-ropharmacology, 62(1): 101–14.
42. Li GR, Sun J, Ye JN, Hou XH, Xiang MQ (2023). Family functioning and mobile phone addiction in university students: mediating effect of loneliness and moderating effect of capacity to be alone. Front Psychol, 14: 1076852.
43. Mi Z, Cao W, Diao W, Wu M, Fang X (2023). The relationship between paren-tal phubbing and mobile phone addic-tion in junior high school students: a moderated mediation model. Front Psy-chol, 14: 1117221.
44. Corry DAS, Leavey G (2017). Adolescent trust and primary care: Help-seeking for emotional and psychological difficul-ties. J Adolesc, 54, 1-8.
45. Wang W, Liu J, Liu Y, Wang P, Guo Z, Hong D, Jiang S (2023). Peer relation-ship and adolescents’ smartphone ad-diction: the mediating role of alienation and the moderating role of sex. Curr Psy-chol, 42(26): 22976–88.
46. Tam CHL, Kwok SI, Lo TW, Lam SHP, Lee GKW (2018). Hidden drug abuse in Hong Kong: from social acquaintance to social isolation. Front Psychiatry, 9: 457.
47. Mirowsky J, Ross CE (1992). Age and de-pression. J Health Soc Behav, 33(2): 187–205.
48. Jorm AF (2000). Does old age reduce the risk of anxiety and depression? a review of epidemiological studies across the adult life span. Psychol Med, 30(1): 11–22.
2. Seo DG, Park Y, Kim MK, Park J (2016). Mobile phone dependency and its im-pacts on adolescents’ social and aca-demic behaviors. Comput Hum Behav, 63: 282–92.
3. Gao T, Li J, Zhang H, Gao J, Kong Y, Hu Y, Mei S (2018). The influence of alexi-thymia on mobile phone addiction: the role of depression, anxiety and stress. J Affect Disorders, 225: 761–6.
4. Leung L (2008). Linking psychological at-tributes to addiction and improper use of the mobile phone among adolescents in Hong Kong. J Child Media, 2(2): 93–113.
5. Yu S, Sussman S (2020). Does smartphone addiction fall on a continuum of addic-tive behaviors?. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 17(2): 422.
6. Zhitomirsky-Geffet M, Blau M (2016). Cross-generational analysis of predictive factors of addictive behavior in smartphone usage. Comput Hum Behav, 64: 682–93.
7. Weiss R (1975). Loneliness: the experience of emo-tional and social isolation. MIT press.
8. Heinrich LM, Gullone E (2006). The clini-cal significance of loneliness: a litera-ture review. Clin Psychol Rev, 26(6): 695–718.
9. Larson RW (1997). The emergence of soli-tude as a constructive domain of experi-ence in early adolescence. Child Dev, 68(1): 80–93.
10. Tan C, Pamuk M, Dönder A (2013). Loneli-ness and mobile phone. Procedia-Soc Be-hav Sci, 103: 606–11.
11. Choliz M (2012). Mobile-phone addiction in adolescence: the test of mobile phone dependence (TMD). Prog Heal Sci, 2(1): 33–44.
12. Dayapoglu N, Kavurmaci M, Karaman S (2016). The relationship between the problematic mobile phone use and life satisfaction, loneliness, and academic performance in nursing students. Int J Caring Sci, 9(2): 647–52.
13. Wang JL, Sheng JR, Wang HZ (2019). The association between mobile game addic-tion and depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. Front Public Health, 7: 247.
14. Lian SL, Sun XJ, Niu GF, Yang XJ, Zhou ZK, Yang C (2021). Mobile phone addic-tion and psychological distress among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of rumination and moderating role of the capacity to be alone. J Affect Disord, 279: 701–10.
15. Miller WR, Seligman ME (1975). Depres-sion and learned helplessness in man. J Abnorm Psychol, 84(3): 228–38.
16. Sartorius N, Üstün TB, Lecrubier Y, Wittchen HU (1996). Depression comorbid with anxiety: results from the WHO study on psychological disorders in primary health care. Br J Psychiatry Suppl, 168(S30): 38–43.
17. George MJ, Odgers CL (2015). Seven fears and the science of how mobile technol-ogies may be influencing adolescents in the digital age. Perspect Psychol Sci, 10(6): 832–51.
18. Rotter JB (1980). Interpersonal trust, trust-worthiness, and gullibility. Am Psychol, 35(1): 1–7.
19. Clarke A, Meredith PJ, Rose TA (2021). In-terpersonal trust reported by adoles-cents living with mental illness: a scop-ing review. Adolesc Res Rev, 6(2): 165–98.
20. Lapierre MA, Zhao P, Custer BE (2019). Short-term longitudinal relationships be-tween smartphone use/dependency and psychological well-being among late adolescents. J Adolesc Health, 65(5): 607–12.
21. Li C, Liu D, Dong Y (2019). Self-esteem and problematic smartphone use among ad-olescents: A moderated mediation mod-el of depression and interpersonal trust. Front Psychol, 10: 2872.
22. Usta E, Korkmaz Ö, Kurt I (2014). The ex-amination of individuals’ virtual loneli-ness states in Internet addiction and vir-tual environments in terms of inter-personal trust levels. Comput Hum Behav, 36: 214–24.
23. Chen X, Lian S, Cheng L, Zhu X (2024). In-terpersonal uncertainty and mobile phone addiction among Chinese college students: the mediating effect of social and emotional loneliness and the mod-erating effect of optimism. Curr Psychol, 43: 19317–29.
24. Bian M, Leung, L (2015). Linking loneliness, shyness, smartphone addiction symp-toms, and patterns of smartphone use to social capital. Soc Sci Comput Rev, 33(1): 61–79.
25. Yao MZ, Zhong ZJ (2014). Loneliness, so-cial contacts and Internet addiction: a cross-lagged panel study. Comput Hum Behav, 30: 164–70.
26. Johnson-George C, Swap WC (1982). Meas-urement of specific interpersonal trust: construction and validation of a scale to assess trust in a specific other. J Pers Soc Psychol, 43(6): 1306–17.
27. Oliveira J, Guerra S, Sousa L, Ribeiro O (2024). Solitude in old age: a scoping re-view of conceptualisations, associated factors and impacts. Aging Ment Health, 21: 220–7.
28. Momeñe J, Estévez A, Griffiths MD, Macía P, Herrero M, Olave L, Iruarrizaga I (2024). The impact of insecure attach-ment on emotional dependence on a partner: the mediating role of negative emotional rejection. Behav Sci-Basel, 14(10): 909.
29. Ingram I, Kelly PJ, Deane FP, Baker AL, Raftery DK (2018). Loneliness in treat-ment-seeking substance-dependent pop-ulations: validation of the social and emotional loneliness scale for adults–short version. J Dual Diagn, 14(4): 211–19.
30. Liu QQ, Yang XJ, Zhu XW, Zhang DJ (2021). Attachment anxiety, loneliness, rumination and mobile phone depend-ence: a cross-sectional analysis of a moderated mediation model. Curr Psy-chol, 40: 5134–44.
31. Simpson JA (2007). Foundations of inter-personal trust. Soc Psychol: Handbook Basic Prin, 2: 587–607.
32. Damsgaard JB, Overgaard CL, Birkelund R (2021). Personal recovery and depres-sion, taking existential and social aspects into account: a struggle with institutional structures, loneliness and identity. Int J Soc Psychiatry, 67(1): 7–14.
33. Holm AL, Severinsson E (2014). Surviving depressive ill‐health: a qualitative sys-tematic review of older persons' narra-tives. Nurs Health Sci, 16(1): 131–40.
34. Russell D, Peplau LA, Cutrona CE (1980). The revised UCLA loneliness scale: concurrent and discriminant validity ev-idence. J Pers Soc Psychol, 39(3): 472–80.
35. Zung WWK (1967). Factors influencing self-assessment of depression. J Consult Clin Psych, 31(3): 369-72.
36. Wolters NE, Mobach L, Wuthrich VM, Vonk P, Van der Heijde CM, Wiers RW, Rapee RM, Klein AM (2023). Emotional and social loneliness and their unique links with social isolation, depression and anxiety. J Affect Disord, 329, 207-217.
37. Liang C, Song Y, Wang B (2022). The influ-ence of social function of mobile game augmented reality and virtual reality en-vironment on mobile phone users’ ad-diction. Wirel Commun Mob Com, 2022: 2903124.
38. Roberts J, Yaya L, Manolis C (2014). The invisible addiction: Cell-phone activities and addiction among male and female college students. J Behav Addict, 3(4): 254–65.
39. Wang H, Chen X (2023). Intervention effect of mindfulness-based mental health ed-ucation therapy on adolescents mobile phone addiction and cognitive tenden-cy. Iran J Public Health, 52(12): 2563–71.
40. Zhang MM, Ma Y, Du LT, Wang K, Li Z. Zhu WL, Sun YH, Lu L, Bao YP, Li SX (2022). Sleep disorders and non-sleep circadian disorders predict depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 134: 104532.
41. Kronfeld-Schor N, Einat H (2012). Circadi-an rhythms and depression: human psy-chopathology and animal models. Neu-ropharmacology, 62(1): 101–14.
42. Li GR, Sun J, Ye JN, Hou XH, Xiang MQ (2023). Family functioning and mobile phone addiction in university students: mediating effect of loneliness and moderating effect of capacity to be alone. Front Psychol, 14: 1076852.
43. Mi Z, Cao W, Diao W, Wu M, Fang X (2023). The relationship between paren-tal phubbing and mobile phone addic-tion in junior high school students: a moderated mediation model. Front Psy-chol, 14: 1117221.
44. Corry DAS, Leavey G (2017). Adolescent trust and primary care: Help-seeking for emotional and psychological difficul-ties. J Adolesc, 54, 1-8.
45. Wang W, Liu J, Liu Y, Wang P, Guo Z, Hong D, Jiang S (2023). Peer relation-ship and adolescents’ smartphone ad-diction: the mediating role of alienation and the moderating role of sex. Curr Psy-chol, 42(26): 22976–88.
46. Tam CHL, Kwok SI, Lo TW, Lam SHP, Lee GKW (2018). Hidden drug abuse in Hong Kong: from social acquaintance to social isolation. Front Psychiatry, 9: 457.
47. Mirowsky J, Ross CE (1992). Age and de-pression. J Health Soc Behav, 33(2): 187–205.
48. Jorm AF (2000). Does old age reduce the risk of anxiety and depression? a review of epidemiological studies across the adult life span. Psychol Med, 30(1): 11–22.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 54 No 7 (2025) | |
| Section | Original Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i7.19153 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Loneliness Adolescent smartphone addict Psychological depression Interpersonal trust Mediating effect | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
How to Cite
1.
Li D, Li K. Effect of Loneliness on Psychological Depression of Adolescent Smartphone Addicts: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Trust. Iran J Public Health. 2025;54(7):1462-1471.
