Abstract
Problematic smartphone use has become a prominent social problem, and factors shaping this behavior have been a research focus. Based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model, we examined the association between ostracism and problematic smartphone use, and individual differences in the relation (i.e., the mediating role of social self-efficacy and the moderating role of rejection sensitivity). A sample of 800 undergraduates were recruited to complete questionnaires. The SPSS PROCESS was used to test the moderated mediation model and the Johnson-Neyman method was used to analyze the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity. As predicted, ostracism was positively associated with problematic smartphone use. Social self-efficacy partially mediated this relation. Rejection sensitivity moderated the relation between ostracism and social self-efficacy—with the association being weaker for students with higher rejection sensitivity. The results have both theoretical and practical implications.
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This work was supported by the Humanities and Social Sciences of China MOE [19YJC190019], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [61907020], the Research Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality [2020–04-012-BZKP01; 2020–04-013-BZPK01], Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation [161075], and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [CCNU20QN023; CCNU20TD001].
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Xiaojun Sun and Yamei Zhang contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors.
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Sun, X., Zhang, Y., Niu, G. et al. Ostracism and Problematic Smartphone Use: the Mediating Effect of Social Self-Efficacy and Moderating Effect of Rejection Sensitivity. Int J Ment Health Addiction 21, 1334–1347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00661-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-021-00661-5