Mediating roles of social anxiety and interpersonal distress in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and loneliness

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between mobile phone addiction and loneliness among college students and the possible mediating roles of social anxiety and interpersonal distress may play in that relationship. A total of 477 Chinese college students (male =167 [35.01%], female =310 [64.99%]; mean age = 20.11 years, SD = 1.17 years) completed the Mobile Phone Addiction Index Scale, the UCLA Loneliness Scale-Version 3, the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale, and the Interpersonal Relations Comprehensive Diagnostic Scale. Following structural equation modelling, results indicated that mobile phone addiction positively predicted loneliness. Social anxiety and interpersonal distress had both a parallel and a sequential mediation effect in the relationship between mobile phone addiction and loneliness. The parallel effect showed that the indirect effects for the paths of "mobile phone addiction -> social anxiety -> loneliness" and ''mobile phone addiction -> interpersonal distress -> loneliness" were significant. The sequential effect showed that the indirect effect for the path of "mobile phone addiction -> social anxiety -> interpersonal distress -> loneliness" was also significant. Student development and support services could counsel for social anxiety and interpersonal distress as a treatment for risk for mobile phone addiction and the other harms of loneliness.