How does social anxiety affect Mobile phone dependence in adolescents? The mediating role of self-concept clarity and self-esteem

The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship of social anxiety, self-concept clarity, self-esteem and adolescents’ mobile phone dependence, and aimed to clarify the role of self-concept clarity and self-esteem in social anxiety and adolescents’ mobile phone dependence. It was hypothesized that social anxiety would affect the adolescents’ mobile phone dependence through the mediating role of self-concept clarity and self-esteem. A total of 1210 adolescents, in which 567 (47.2%) boys and 634 (52.8%) girls, completed the Self-rating Questionnaire for Adolescent Problematic Mobile Phone Use, Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, Self-concept Clarity Scale, and Self-esteem Scale. Results revealed that social anxiety significantly predicted adolescents’ mobile phone dependence not only directly, but also through the mediation of self-concept clarity, the mediation of self-esteem, and serial mediation of self-concept clarity and self-esteem. Findings of the present study can clarify how social anxiety affects adolescents’ mobile phone dependence and enrich theories about mobile phone dependence, which also can help to establish the intervention or protection of adolescents’ mobile phone dependence.