The Mediating Effects of Loneliness on the Relationship between Smartphone Addiction and Dependent Personality Trait in Adults

Jeung Ok

doi:10.15384/kjhp.2016.16.4.260

Korean J Health Promot > Volume 16(4); 2016 > Article

Ok: The Mediating Effects of Loneliness on the Relationship between Smartphone Addiction and Dependent Personality Trait in Adults

Original Article

Korean Journal of Health Promotion 2016;16(4):260-267.

Published online: January 20, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2016.16.4.260

The Mediating Effects of Loneliness on the Relationship between Smartphone Addiction and Dependent Personality Trait in Adults

Department of Counseling Psychology, Seoul Cyber University, Seoul, Korea

Jeung Ok

Corresponding author: Jeung Ok, PhD Department of Counseling Psychology, Seoul Cyber University, 60 Solmae-ro 49-gil, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul 01133, Korea
Tel: +82-2-944-5035, Fax: +82-2-982-4810 E-mail: oj256@iscu.ac.kr

Received November 01, 2016 Accepted December 19, 2016

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

요약

Background

As the number of smartphone users is increasing, smartphone addiction is a recent concern. The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediating effect of loneliness on the relationship between smartphone addiction and dependent/ avoidant personality trait in Adults.

Methods

A total of 550 adults (male 116, female 434) were selected and rated smartphone addiction scale, dependent and avoidant personality trait scales, and loneliness scale. Pearson correlation coefficients, Structural Equation Model Analysis and Sobel test using SPSS version 21.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) and AMOS version 21.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) were conducted.

Results

Dependent and avoidant personality significantly were related smartphone addiction and loneliness. Finding in structural equation modeling indicated that the loneliness partially mediated the relationship between dependent personality and smartphone addiction, but did not mediated the relationship between avoidant personality and smartphone addiction.

Conclusions

This study confirmed partial mediation effect of loneliness on the relationship between smart-phone addiction and dependent personality. This finding suggests that future intervention for smartphone addiction should focus on reducing of loneliness and proper coping with loneliness.

Keywords: Smartphone addiction, Dependent personality, Avoidant personality, Loneliness

Figure 1.

Research model.

Figure 2.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis results of measurement model in dependent personality model.

Figure 3.

Research model and standardized factor loading values. Model fit analysis by SEM; df=51, χ²=198.83, RMSEA=0.073, TLI=0.936, CFI=0.091.

Table 1.

Demographic characteristics of participants (n=550)

Characteristics		Values
Gender	Male	116 (21.1)
	Female	434 (78.9)
Age	Less than 20	1 (0.2)
	20–29	123 (22.4)
	30–39	176 (32.0)
	40–49	199 (36.2)
	50–59	47 (8.5)
	Over than 60	4 (0.7)
Employment	Employed	411 (74.7)
	Not Employed	139 (25.3)

Values are presented as number (%).

Table 2.

Comparison fit indices between research model and modified model in dependent personality model

	χ²	df	TLI	CFI	RMSEA (90% CI)
Research model	2656.64	699	0.754	0.768	0.071 (0.069–0.074)
Modified model	198.83	51	0.936	0.951	0.073 (0.062–0.083)

Abbreviations: TLI, tucker-lewis index; CFI, comparative fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; CI, confidence interval.

Table 3.

Path coefficients of the final model in dependent personality model

Path	Non-standardized	Standard	Standardized	P
Path	coefficients	error	coefficients	P
Dependent personality → smartphone addiction	0.33	0.06	0.31	<0.001
Dependent personality → loneliness	0.59	0.09	0.37	<0.001
Loneliness → smartphone addiction	0.08	0.04	0.12	<0.05

Table 4.

Direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of the final model in dependent personality model

Independent variable	Dependent variable	Direct effect	Indirect effect	Total effect
Dependent personality	Loneliness	0.37	–	0.37
Dependent personality	Smartphone addiction	0.31	0.05	0.36
Loneliness	Smartphone addiction	0.12	–	0.12

Table 5.

Mediating effects verification results of the final model in dependent personality model

Path	Z	P
Dependent personality → loneliness → smartphone addiction	2.26	<0.05

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