Depression and anxiety symptoms are associated with problematic smartphone use under the COVID-19 epidemic: The mediation models

Abstract COVID-19 epidemic has brought wide psychological impacts on the young adults. To investigate the depression and anxiety symptoms and their associations with problematic smartphone use under the COVID-19 epidemic, a total of 847 Chinese undergraduate students joined in this study and were measured with their levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, resilience, perceived social support, the sense of school belonging and problematic smartphone use. Results showed that among the Chinese undergraduate students, the disorder rates of depression and anxiety symptoms were 29.16% and 46.64% respectively, and their symptoms ranged from mild to extreme severe. Depression and anxiety symptoms both positively predicted problematic smartphone use. Resilience, perceived social support and the sense of school belonging partially mediated both associations; resilience and the sense of school belonging exerted buffering effects, while perceived social support exacerbated the impacts. The current study advanced our understanding of the COVID-19 impacts and furthermore, suggested the protective factors for mitigating these impacts.