Abstract
Problematic mobile phone use can have negative impacts on adolescents’ growth and health. Prior research has shown that character strengths contribute positively to adolescent development. However, little research has been done to investigate the relationship between adolescents’ character strengths and problematic mobile phone use. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between character strengths and problematic mobile phone use, as well as the mediating roles of basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience in this relationship. This cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2022, including 693 Chinese adolescent participants. Character strengths, basic psychological needs satisfaction, resilience, and problematic mobile phone use were measured using established scales. The results indicated that character strengths were negatively related to problematic mobile phone use, and positively related to basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience. Furthermore, basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience fully and respectively mediated the association between character strengths and problematic mobile phone use. Additionally, character strengths influenced adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use through the serial mediating effect of basic psychological needs satisfaction and resilience. Moreover, the results also showed that sex moderated the character strengths-basic psychological needs satisfaction relationship, the basic psychological needs satisfaction-resilience relationship, and the basic psychological needs satisfaction-problematic mobile phone use relationship. The current findings provide important insights into how to prevent problematic mobile phone use among adolescents.
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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Bai, C., Mo, Q.L. & Bai, B. How do character strengths relate to adolescents’ problematic mobile phone use? A serial mediation model and sex differences. Curr Psychol 43, 7697–7708 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04952-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04952-z