Behavioral sciences
Severity Profiles of Smartphone Addiction and Mental Health Differences from the Perspective of Adolescent Development: A Latent Profile Analysis
By Zhang N, Gao X, Yang Y and 5 others.
Abstract
Introduction
In the digital age, smartphones may amplify adolescents' developmental vulnerability, making their mental health more likely to be affected by problematic smartphone use. However, prior research has largely overlooked adolescents' developmental characteristics and individual differences.
Methods
This study employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify distinct severity profiles of smartphone addiction risk among 2158 Chinese adolescents (53.1% boys; mean age = 14.07 years). We further examined the associations of demographic variables with profile membership, and applied the BCH weighting method to compare differences in well-being, anxiety, and depression across profiles.