Pandemic exposure, fear, and mobile phone dependence among adolescents: The buffering role of optimism

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-2975520/v1

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Pandemic exposure, fear, and mobile phone dependence among adolescents: The buffering role of optimism

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2975520/v1

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Adolescents' fear of pandemic and concern about their health have led them to collected the information about the pandemic constantly, and increased their dependence on mobile phones, which have caused adverse effects on adolescents’ physical and mental health. But optimism may mitigate the effect of pandemic exposure on fear and reduce phone-dependent behavior. This study aimed to discuss the mediating role of fear and the moderating role of optimism in the relation between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. Self-report questionnaires were used to investigate the physical and mental status among 938 adolescents. Pearson correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis and simple slope test were used for data analysis. Pandemic exposure was positively related to mobile phone dependence or in an indirect way through fear, in which optimism moderated the mechanism of pandemic exposure on fear, but optimism could not significantly moderate the impact of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence.

pandemic exposure

mobile phone dependence

fear

optimism

adolescents

The COVID-19 pandemic had begun to spread around the world. This pandemic had influenced social, and economic consequences (Quadros, Garg, Ranjan, Vijayasarathi, & Mamun., 2021), physical conditions and psychological health (Khan, Mamun, & Griffiths., 2022 )were also being impacted globally. This emergency had changed the lifestyle of adolescents. Such as, the closure of schools due to lockdown has reduced possibilities for physical activities and social life. Adolescents have been deprived for a long time of educational environments, social activities, and consequently contact with peers, with a disruption of daily schedules and a significant reduction of affective, cognitive, and physical stimuli (Caroppo et al., 2021). It was urgent for family, school and society to pay close attention to the mental health problems of adolescents under the pandemic, and provide timely humanistic care and psychological intervention (Su & Chi, 2022).

The pandemic information, the loneliness and fear caused by social isolation, had increased adolescents’ sense of insecurity, which greatly aggravated their dependence on mobile phones (Li, Zhan, Zhou, & Gao, 2021). Mobile phone dependence referred to individuals' excessive use of mobile phones and inability to independently control their usage time (Dong et al., 2023). It had increasingly become a thorny problem for thousands of parents and educators. Studies have shown that mobile phone dependence among Chinese adolescents is rising annually, exceeding 25% (Tang et al., 2016). With the progress of science and technology, the problem of mobile phone dependence is increasingly common all over the world, which seriously plays a important role in adolescents’ physical and mental health (Goswami et al., 2016). Over-indulgence in mobile phones could lead to a series of physical and mental health problems (Fu et al., 2020; Enez Darcin et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2022). It would lead to the reduction of time for realistic communication and interaction of individuals, reduce the quality of individual interpersonal relationship, and weaken the perception of happiness of individuals (Li et al., 2017). According to the compensatory internet use theory (Yu et al., 2020), if the real environment makes the individual feel uncomfortable, they are likely to use the mobile phone to escape the predicament in the real world, which is more likely to cause the mobile phone dependence problem. The general environment of the pandemic had certainly provided a breeding ground for mobile phone dependency to grow. In pandemic environment, adolescents had less recreational activities and a lot of disposable time. The emergence of pandemic response measures, such as home isolation and online classes, had greatly increased their contact time with mobile phones, further increasing the possibility of mobile phone dependence (Dong, Yang, Lu, & Hao, 2020). According to the 48th China Statistical Report on Internet Development, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there were 1.07 billion mobile phone users in China, accounting for 99.7% of the total number of internet users by June 2021 (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021). Furthermore, internet users spend an average of 26.9 h online per week, and the number of internet users aged 6–19 years reached 158 million, accounting for 15.7% of the total percentage of adolescents (China Internet Network Information Center, 2021). A study conducted in December 2018 in Shenzhen, a city in south China, showed that youth (18–24 years old) people used mobile phones for 3.78 ± 2.51 h per day before the pandemic (Qiu et al., 2021). A current study found the average duration of mobile phone use was 7.39 h, which was much longer than previous studies, especially those prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (Jiang et al., 2022).

In order to better explore the phenomenon of mobile phone dependence among adolescents under the pandemic and provide psychological intervention, it is necessary to explore specific influencing factors. The influence of the pandemic not only involved the general population, but also threatened the psychological health of adolescents who were the "hardest hit areas" among many vulnerable groups (Wang, Lv, & Zhang, 2022). A study demonstrated a high prevalence of psychological distress in quarantined adolescents due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. These individuals have experienced helplessness (66.11%), worry (68.59%) and fear (61.98%), compared to non-quarantined adolescents (Saurabh & Ranjan, 2020). The popularity of mobile phones and the internet had made the dissemination and access to information more convenient. At the same time, false pandemic information had also been widely and rapidly disseminated, causing panic among the people (Wang, Hu, Zhang, & Ding, 2021).

Based on the compensatory internet use theory and the empirical research in the field of mobile phone dependence, the relevant research further put forward the integration model of environmental factors, state psychological factors, trait psychological factors and mobile phone dependence (Yu et al., 2020). According to the model, COVID-19 as a negative external environmental factor, which was not only positively related to individuals' mobile phone dependence, but also played a significant role in individuals' mobile phone dependence by influencing their state psychological factors (Yu et al., 2020). Adolescents had immature psychological development and were more likely to perform negative emotions such as fear when facing the environment of major pandemic risk. The seriousness of the pandemic would prompt adolescents in fear to constantly ask for information about the pandemic through their mobile phones, such as symptoms, itinerary, prognosis, to conform whether they were infected, so as to aggravate their mobile phone dependence and make a negative consequence on their mental health.

At the same time, the theory suggested that individual idiosyncratic psychological factors (such as personality characteristics, coping style) may play a moderating role in this process (Yu et al., 2020). In other words, in the negative external environment of the pandemic, individual who had a high level of optimism would treat the negative events in life with a more positive attitude and use a variety of problem-solving strategies to deal with difficulties encountering in the pandemic, so as to reduce their dependence on mobile phones. Optimism as a special psychological factor, played a moderating role in the path of pandemic exposure to mobile phone dependence. Previous studies showed that the pandemic had a significant impact on the mental health of adolescents (Zhang et al., 2020). Optimism may alleviate the impact of pandemic exposure on fear. Optimism (A psychological capital) was an important variable of positive psychology (Wang et al., 2021). Luthans (2007) defined it as a positive state of mind manifested in the process of growth and development. Optimism was positively correlated with positive emotion, but negatively correlated with negative emotion and anxiety. Previous research suggested there was a high correlation between optimism and negative emotion (Zhang et al., 2010). Simsek and Sali (2014) found a negative relationship between optimism and mobile phone dependence.

Optimistic attributional style hold that optimism was a positive interpretation style, which referred to a stable tendency shown by individuals when attributing success or failure (Peterson et al., 1984). Adolescents exposed to the pandemic would show more fear and behavior problems (Meherali et al., 2021), in which individuals with optimistic interpretation style would attribute bad things to external, unstable and specific causes, and good things to internal, stable and universal causes (Alan, 2003), which help to enhance their confidence and ability to resist the pandemic, reduce their fear of the pandemic and improve their mental health.

In conclusion, based on the special context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study explored the influencing mechanism of adolescents' mobile phone dependence. Different studies had shown that crisis events negatively impacted the psychological well-being of adolescents (Imran et al., 2020). Under the pandemic conditions, adolescents' emotions fluctuated greatly, and their emotions such as fear and anxiety increased rapidly. The study found that during the pandemic, prevention and control measures required a reduction in social activities, reduced social support among adolescents, thus increasing loneliness and risk of mental illness such as anxiety and depression (Lee et al., 2020; Loadest et al., 2020). A recent study that Jiao et al (2020) conducted in China screened adolescents for behavioral and emotional distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anxiety, depression, distraction, irritability, and the fear that family members would contract the deadly disease were the most common problems that they identified. The pandemic had brought great changes to the lives of adolescents. Fear of disease、death and uncertainty about the future (Troyer et al., 2020) forced them to be more active in checking information about symptoms and other pandemic related issues, leading to behavioral problems of mobile phone dependence. Zhang (2010) proposed that there was a negative correlation between optimism and negative emotion in psychological capital. However, most of the existing studies explored the influence path between pandemic situation and negative emotion, trying to explain the physiological and psychological changes of individuals under the pandemic (Quadros et al., 2021; Oliveira et al., 2021). This study attempted to explore the mediating effect of fear on the problem of mobile phone dependence caused by pandemic exposure, the moderating effect of optimism on fear and mobile phone dependence caused by pandemic exposure. Based on the above explanation, the following hypotheses were put forward. The hypothetical framework was shown in the Fig. 1.

Hypothesis 1

Pandemic exposure would predict mobile phone dependence significantly and positively;

Hypothesis 2

Pandemic exposure would predict fear positively. Optimism would also moderate the impact of pandemic exposure on fear significantly;

Hypothesis 3

Optimism would predict mobile phone dependence significantly and negatively, optimism would regulate the impact of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence significantly.

2.1 Participants

In July 2022, we recruited adolescents by paper-pencil questionnaires from Hubei province, China. With the help of school teachers, we selected 14 classes in Grade seven and eight with no teaching activities. There were approximately 67 students in each class. Finally, 938 students were enrolled in this study. Of these, 510 (56%) were boys, 400 (43%) were girls. The mean age was 12.53 years (standard deviation 0.63 years; range 12–15 years).

This study was approved by the research ethics committee of Hangzhou Normal University. All students in the selected classrooms attended school on the assessment date, and all agreed to participate in the investigation and completed self-report questionnaires. Participants were informed of the purpose of the study and the voluntary nature of participation before the survey. Written informed consent was obtained from all students and their guardians. Assessments were conducted under the supervision of trained psychology postgraduate students.

2.2 Measures

2.2.1 Fear. We used the Subjective Fear Questionnaire which was compiled by zhou et al (2015) and revised by Zhen to measure the fear of adolescents. A 5-point scale was used by us, with "1"="completely inconsistent", and "5"="full compliance". The scale included seven items, including ""Fear of infection or isolation of yourself ", "Fear of infection or isolation of your loved ones" and so on. Higher scores indicated more severe fear to the pandemic. The scale had acceptable reliability (α = 0.89) in this study.

2.2.2 Positive psychological capital. We used the Positive Psychological Capital Questionnaire to investigate the optimism of adolescents (Zhang et al., 2010). Each item was scored on a five-point Likert scale, "1"="completely inconsistent" and "7"="completely consistent". The scale included twenty-six items, such as "I always see the good side of things" and "I think life is good" and so on. The revised questionnaire also had acceptable reliability (α = 0.84) in this study.

2.2.3 Mobile phone dependence. We used the questionnaire related to the mobile phone dependence item in the KCYPS manual to investigate the mobile phone dependence of adolescents (Dong, Park, Min, & Park, 2016). Using a 4-point scale, where "1"="completely inconsistent" and "4"="completely consistent". The scale consisted of seven questions: "I spend more and more time on my phone", "I feel anxious when my phone is not around", "I feel anxious if I don't receive a call or message for a while" and so on. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = 0.88).

2.2.4 Pandemic exposure. We used the Pandemic Risk Perception Questionnaire to investigate the pandemic exposure of adolescents (Zhen, 2020). A 2-point scoring method was used, with "0"="no" and "1"="yes". The scale consisted of 10 questions, including "I saw that some infected people died through the Internet", "I learned from my family or others that some infected people died" and so on. The scale showed acceptable reliability (α = 0.63) in this study.

2.3 Data Analytical Strategies

SPSS 23.0 and Mplus 7.0 were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were used to examine the variable levels and the associations between variables. Hierarchical regression was used to analyse the mediation and moderation effect, testing the direct and indirect effects between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. Simple slope test was carried out to ensure the reliability of the research results.

3.1 Descriptive statistics and correlations between main variables

Table 1 showed the descriptive statistics and correlations between pandemic exposure, fear, optimism and mobile phone dependence. Gender and age were also included in the correlation analysis. As seen in Table 1, gender was significantly and positively correlated with fear, optimism and mobile phone dependence (r = 0.12, p < 0.001); (r=-0.09, p < 0.01); (r = 0.12, p < 0.001); age was significantly and positively correlated with pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence (r = 0.12, p < 0.001; r = 0.17, p < 0.001). There was a significant positive correlation between pandemic exposure, fear and mobile phone dependence (r = 0.08, p < 0.05; r = 0.13, p < 0.001), but no significant correlation with optimism. Significant positive correlations were found between fear, optimism and mobile phone dependence (r = 0.11, p < 0.01; r = 0.16, p < 0.001), while there was a significant negative correlation between optimism and mobile phone dependence (r=-0.14, p < 0.001).

Table 1

*Means, standard deviations, and correlations among main variables.*
Variables	M ± SD	1	2	3	4	5
1.Sex	--	1.00
2.Age	12.53 ± .63	0.00	1.00
3.Exposure	2.15 ± 1.50	0.04	0.12^***	1.00
4.Fear	22.64 ± 9.03	0.12^***	0.00	0.08^*	1.00
5.Optimism	26.15 ± 8.14	-0.09^**	-0.06	-0.02	0.11^**
6.MPD	14.72 ± 5.29	0.12^***	0.17^***	0.13^***	0.16^***	-0.14^***
Note: ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001. Exposure = Pandemic exposure, MPD = Mobile phone dependence.

3.2 The moderated mediation model tests

Based on the hypothesis, the study examined the mediating role of fear and the moderating role of optimism between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence using a hierarchical regression method. As seen in Table 2, the study centralized all variables before regression analysis. Gender and age were also controlled as covariables, considering that there was a certain correlation between them and the main variables. Three models were established in this study. Model 1 mainly examined the direct effect of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence, which found that pandemic exposure could significantly and positively predict mobile phone dependence. Model 2 mainly examined the direct effect of pandemic exposure on fear and the moderating effect of optimism. The results showed that pandemic exposure and optimism could significantly predict fear directly and positively; optimism could also significantly moderate the influence of pandemic exposure on fear. Model 3 mainly examined the mediating role of fear and the moderating role of optimism in the relation between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. The results showed that pandemic exposure had a significant positive predictive effect on mobile phone dependence. Optimism was negatively associated with mobile phone dependence. But contrary to our hypothesis, optimism could not significantly moderate the impact of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence. Fear had a significant positive predictive effect on mobile phone dependence, combined with the results of model 2. It showed that fear played an intermediary role between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. Combining the results of the three regression models, the study found that pandemic exposure was positively associated with mobile phone dependence both in a direct way or in an indirect way through fear. Optimism moderated the impact of pandemic exposure on fear.

Table 2

*Regression model analysis of the mediating effect of fear and optimism*
	Model 1: Mobile Phone Dependence		Model 2: Fear		Model 3: Mobile Phone Dependence
	t	β	t	β	t	β
Sex	3.28^**	0.11	2.95^**	0.11	3.48^***	0.12
Age	4.94^***	0.17	0.01	0.00	4.43^***	0.16
Exposure	2.80^**	0.10	1.88^†	0.07	2.99^**	0.11
optimism			3.36^**	0.12	-3.06^**	-0.11
Exposure^* Optimism			-2.00^*	-0.07	0.44	0.02
Fear					4.78^***	0.17
Note: ^†p = 0.061, marginal significance. Exposure = Pandemic exposure, Exposure ^* Optimism = Pandemic Exposure ^* Optimism.

In order to further test the moderating significance of optimism in the influence of pandemic exposure on fear, simple slope test was conducted. As seen in Fig. 2, the results showed that when the level of optimism was high, the predictive effect of pandemic exposure on fear was not significant (Simple slope = 0.13, t = 0.45, p = 0.326); when the level of optimism was low, pandemic exposure had a significant positive predictively effect on fear (Simple slope = 0.74, t = 2.91, p = 0.003). This result showed that the impact of pandemic exposure on fear decreased with the increase of the level of optimism.

This study examined the association between pandemic exposure, mobile phone dependence, fear, and optimism in adolescents during the pandemic. We focused on the influencing mechanism of the effect of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence through fear and optimism. We found that pandemic exposure was positively related to mobile phone dependence and in an indirect way through fear, in which optimism moderated the mechanism of pandemic exposure on fear. The pandemic led to adolescents’ fear, which would increase their mobile phone dependence. But optimism stimulated individuals’ positive motivations to achieve goals during the pandemic, and increased their autonomy and selectivity in information selection, mitigated the effect of pandemic exposure on fear. But optimism could not significantly moderate the impact of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence. These findings suggested that there were the potential mediating roles of fear and the moderating role of optimism between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence, which partially supported the hypotheses above.

4.1 Positive association between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence

The results of this study demonstrated that pandemic exposure could significantly predict mobile phone dependence directly and positively. Consistent with previous studies, this study found that the more severe of the pandemic, the more problems with mobile phone dependence. According to the general strain theory (Jun et al., 2015), those who experienced more negative events were more inclined to release their stress through deviant or addictive behaviors. A study reported that adolescents had to endure significant stress under the COVID-19 pandemic, their gaming addiction and internet using time had increased (Fernandes et al., 2020). Adolescents under the pandemic were experiencing both physical and psychological changes. They faced more peer conflicts, life disorders and other negative life events (Guessoum et al., 2020), and adolescents who experienced more negative life events may relieve their negative emotions through excessive use of mobile phones (Liu, 2022).

4.2 Mediating role of fear

This study examined the mediating role of fear between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence in the grim context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the lack of preparedness of Health Care Systems, fast spread of the new virus, high mortality rates, and lack of a definite treatment, the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic led to high levels of fear and anxiety in different populations. In addition, isolation, mental disorders and limitations in social interactions as a result of lockdown and travel ban increased the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic (Luo et al., 2021).

The cognitive-behavioral model of pathological internet use (Davis, 2001) also supported the mediating role of fear between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. According to this model, mobile phone dependence belonged to general PIU (Generalized Pathological Internet Use), and the cause of general PIU was related to individual psychological pathogens and their social situation. The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by earth-shaking changes in lifestyle and learning style. It put great pressure on adolescents, which was likely to lead to fear. Under the joint action of the psychological factors of social situation and fear, adolescents had the behavior problem of mobile phone dependence.

4.3 Moderating role of optimism

We found that optimism significantly and directly alleviated the fear of pandemic exposure. In other words, the effect of pandemic exposure on fear decreased with increasing levels of optimism. The research results were consistent with an online study, the relation between fear of COVID-19 and optimism were investigated in 546 subjects. The study found that optimism was significantly moderated the fear of COVID-19 (Vos et al., 2021). In other words, the research found that optimism significantly alleviated the fear of COVID-19 pandemic. We have provided the following explanation for this, as a positive psychological capital, optimism played a significant role in moderating individual negative emotions under the pandemic situation, optimism can improve their attitude towards the future and enhance their life satisfaction (Wider et al., 2022).

Furthermore, some studies showed that optimism protected people from addictive behaviors. For example, a research founded that high optimism could help adolescents use the mobile internet correctly and reduce addiction (Chen et al., 2022). However, our findings showed that the moderating role of optimism in pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence was not significant. The result may be related to the fact that individuals with optimistic attributional style (Alan, 2003) tend to make external specific attributions in the face of bad things. If adolescents have a high level of optimism, they will be more inclined to make external attributions when facing stressful situations, thereby reducing their own stress rather than through excessive use of mobile phones. In addition, the psychological buffer effect model states (Li et al., 2014) that optimism (a psychological capital) may indirectly affect outcome variables at the individual, group, and organizational levels by influencing several intermediate variables. The intermediate variables presented here contain mediating and moderating variables, implying that the effect of optimism on mobile phone dependence which caused by pandemic exposure may be indirect rather than direct.

4.4 Limitations and implications

Several limitations should be noted in this study. Firstly, this study used the self-report questionnaires to collect data and information, this method was more efficient and safe in the pandemic environment, which had a wide range of application, and was not limited by time, space and place. However, it could not reveal the causal relation between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence. And the effectiveness of the results depended on the cooperation of the participants, it may lead to social approval deviation and deliberate deception, which would affect the effectiveness of the results. Secondly, there were many factors that affect adolescents' mobile phone dependence. Due to the limitation of design, this study didn’t take confounding factors into consideration (e.g., contact with friends ), future study need to consider some potential confounding factors in investigation.

Despite these limitations, improper use of mobile phones has had a negative impact on the physical and psychological aspects of adolescents, and dependence on mobile phones has increasingly become a thorny issue that plagues thousands of parents and educators. This study was to examine the influencing mechanism of pandemic exposure on mobile phone dependence among adolescents in China. Our findings suggested that pandemic exposure could elicit a constellation of fear and increase mobile phone dependence of adolescents. Furthermore, this study elucidated specific mediator and moderator in the process of pandemic exposure predicting pandemic exposure. From a practical perspective, we provide several specific suggestions to improve the levels of adolescents’ mental health and reduce their mobile phone dependence. First, parents and teachers should promote the dissemination of positive information, improve adolescents’ optimism about the future, reduce their fear and anxiety, thus promoting they to achieve a healthier psychological level. Second, parents need to provide more care and attention for adolescents to fulfill their needs for sense of security and company; parents should also guide adolescents to do some physical exercise or other activities, to consume children’s excessive energy and shift their focus from mobile phone. Third, educational institutions are supposed to set up courses on emotional regulation and organize a variety of extracurricular activities, enabling adolescents to learn more ways to deal with negative emotions. In such ways, adolescents will be less likely to experience fear or indulge in mobile phone during the pandemic.

Ethical Approval

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

Competing interests

Conflict of Interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Authors’ contributions

JW, TL, and RZ collected the data, QL, BC, RZ, and ZC performed data analysis, JW, ZC, and RZ wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Funding

This study was supported by National Youth Project for National Social Sciences Fund of China (Education; CHA200259).

Availability of data and materials

The data used in the research are available. The data can be obtained by emailing: [email protected]. The materials used in the research are available. The materials can be obtained by emailing: [email protected].

Conflicts of Interest:

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgement: This study was supported by National Youth Project for National Social Sciences Fund of China (Education; CHA200259). Thank you for the teachers and students in the participating school for their time and support.

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Pandemic exposure, fear, and mobile phone dependence among adolescents: The buffering role of optimism

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Abstract

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1. Introduction

2. Methods

2.1 Participants

2.2 Measures

2.3 Data Analytical Strategies

3. Results

3.1 Descriptive statistics and correlations between main variables

3.2 The moderated mediation model tests

4. Discussion

4.1 Positive association between pandemic exposure and mobile phone dependence

4.2 Mediating role of fear

4.3 Moderating role of optimism

4.4 Limitations and implications

Declarations

References

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