Accepted Manuscript

Loneliness and Excessive Smartphone Use among Chinese College Students:

Moderated Mediation Effect of Perceived Stressed and Motivation

Xi Shen, Jin-Liang Wang

PII: S0747-5632(19)30021-4

DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.012

Reference: CHB 5879

To appear in: Computers in Human Behavior

Received Date: 01 August 2018

Accepted Date: 14 January 2019

Please cite this article as: Xi Shen, Jin-Liang Wang, Loneliness and Excessive Smartphone Use
among Chinese College Students: Moderated Mediation Effect of Perceived Stressed and
Motivation, Computers in Human Behavior (2019), doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.012

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Loneliness and Excessive Smartphone Use among Chinese

College Students: Moderated Mediation Effect of Perceived
Stressed and Motivation

Xi Shen1*,

Jin-Liang Wang2

1 College of physical education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China

2Center for Mental Health Education, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University,
Chongqing, China

Corresponding author: Xi Shen

College of physical education, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China,

637000

Telephone number: (86)18882349971

E-mail: 15536618160@163.com

Keywords: loneliness, excessive smartphone use, stress, entertainment, escapism,

college students
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Loneliness and Excessive Smartphone Use among Chinese

College Students: Moderated Mediation Effect of Perceived

Stress and Motivation

Abstract: Excessive smartphone use has recently attracted researchers’ attention.

Although extensive research has tested factors that affect excessive smartphone use,

few has examined complex models of different motivations and individual

characteristics interact with each other, and the subsequent impact on excessive

smartphone use. The present study aims to construct a moderated mediation model to

explore the impact of loneliness on excessive smartphone use among Chinese college

students and its internal mechanism. Using a sample of 549 smartphone users, we

found that for entertainment motivation, it was a mediator between loneliness and

excessive smartphone use and perceived stress moderated the relationship between the

mediator (entertainment motivation) and excessive smartphone use. Additionally, for

escapism motivation, loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use only through

the mediating role of escapism motivation. Our findings demonstrated the importance

of unsolved life problems in facilitating excessive smartphone use and could provide a

new perspective for researchers to design interventions for excessive smartphone

users.

Keywords: loneliness, excessive smartphone use, stress, entertainment, escapism,

college students

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1 Introduction

With their large screen sizes and a plethora of functions to be accessed anytime and

anywhere, smartphones have replaced cell phones, personal computers and other

devices. Becoming a “versatile baby-sitter”, smartphones have penetrated almost

every aspect of our lives and gratified users’ needs and desires. Although their usage

has brought great convenience to our lives, it should be noted that more and more

people increasingly struggle to escape this trap of smartphones and emerge the

phenomenon of excessive use. Excessive smartphone use is also known as mobile

phone addiction, mobile phone dependence, mobile phone addiction tendency and no

cell phone anxiety (Billieux, Van Der Linden, & Rochat, 2008; Ezoe et al., 2009;

Hong, Chiu, & Huang, 2012). However, as it is theoretically controversial to define

behavioural addiction (Peters & Malesky, 2008), the term excessive smartphone use is

used in the study hereof, which refers to problematic mentality or behavioural

occurrence as a result of smartphone overuse (Su et al., 2014).

Previous studies have found that individual characteristics (i.e., loneliness and

perceived stress) and motivation are important predictors of excessive smartphone use

(Bian & Leung, 2015; Chiu, 2014; Khang, Kim, & Kim, 2013; Kim, LaRose, & Peng,

2009; Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009; Park, 2003; Samaha & Hawi, 2016; Tan,

Pamuk, & Dönder, 2013), and individuals would use these devices to avoid coping

with life problems. As one of personal features, loneliness is the perceived pain about

their social status, when individuals’ expected social interactions do not match with

their actual level (Cacioppo & Patrick, 2008). A wide array of studies have confirmed

that loneliness could easily lead to overuse (Bian & Leung, 2015; Kim et al., 2009;

Tan et al., 2013). Morahan-Martin (2000) found that participates who scored higher

on the loneliness scale were also problematic Internet users, and these individuals in

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college were more likely to use Internet to relax and seek support from other users

with the same interests online. This varied pattern of social interaction on the Internet

could help them adjust the negative emotions associated with loneliness. Additionally,

Bian and Leung (2015) discovered that loneliness could predict excessive smartphone

use and these scoring high on loneliness are more likely to be incompetent in their

social relations and unwilling to communicate with others face to face. Thus, as a

substitute for interpersonal contact, messages and other applications on smartphones

are their main communication tools. Gradually, this behaviour can easily lead to

excessive use.

In search of emotional support and satisfaction, these lonely individuals often use

smartphones to solve or avoid loneliness and then form a smartphone dependence

(Liu & Wang, 2011). However, feeling lonely might not necessarily always lead to

excessive smartphone use. Instead, other possible mediating and moderating variables

may affect the relationship. Entertainment motivation has been indicated to affect the

relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use (Liu & Wang, 2011),

and in order to escape, the main motivation of addictive behaviour is to reduce

negative emotional state (Peele, 1985). Therefore, we assume that entertainment and

escapism motivation are mediators of loneliness and excessive smartphone use.

Moreover, individuals who were more stressed and their usage behaviour was

motivated primarily with entertainment and escapism, may have a greater chance of

experiencing excessive outcomes from their smartphone usage (Wang et al., 2015).

This implies that the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use

may be more complex than previously theorized. Therefore, in this study, we try to

clarify prior research by theorizing and constructing a moderated mediation model to

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test the mediating effect of motivation and the moderating effect of perceived stress

between loneliness and excessive smartphone use among Chinese college students.

1.1 Motivation as a mediator

From media usage, users might make potential benefits and acquire a sense of

satisfaction. As proposed by the Uses and Gratification theory, users actively choose a

certain media that can meet their needs. Users’ choices are based on their evaluation

of the extent to which their needs can be gratified. Gratifications acquired by a certain

medium can lead to positive attitudes, which in turn will influence users’ behaviors

and lead to continuous use (Lee & Ma, 2012). Previous studies have found the

relationship between motivations and excessive use (Khang et al., 2013; Lee et al.,

2014; Park, 2003). Regarding mobile phone use, Park (2003) indicated that cell phone

dependence correlated significantly with motivation variables such as loneliness,

pasting time and escapism. Lee et al. (2014) also found that people used them to

satisfy their needs for social status, instantaneousness, stress release and entertainment.

Furthermore, when confronted with social and interpersonal stress, individuals may

use media to cope with this stress, which might lead to their dependence on media

(Khang et al., 2013).

The basic function of the mobile phone can fundamentally eliminate the anxiety

caused by human loneliness (Townsend, 2000). Therefore, when trying to explore the

relationship between these variables and excessive use, it is necessary to speculate

about the causes for individuals. Compensatory Internet Use theory pointed out that

individuals with low psychological well-being might use their smartphones to

alleviate their negative emotional state and cope with life problems, which meant that

they were more likely to use smartphones based on some motivations (Kardefelt-

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Winther, 2014a). As loneliness might stimulate the motivation of smartphone use,

individuals’ motivations could drive their usage behaviour and directly affect the

tendency of excessive smartphone use (Liu & Wang, 2011). Following this line of

thought, motivation might mediate the relationship between loneliness and excessive

smartphone use. Entertainment motivation has already been proven to mediate the

relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use (Liu & Wang,

2011).Given that entertaining oneself and escaping reality are two of the essential

functions of smartphone use, this usage pattern may help people relax (Lowry, Gaskin,

& Moody, 2015). Therefore, we chose entertainment and escapism motivations and

predicted that these two motivation variables would be mediators between loneliness

and excessive smartphone use. Based on the above analyses, the first two hypotheses

are proposed as follows:

H1: Entertainment motivation mediates the relationship between loneliness and

excessive smartphone use.

H2: Escapism motivation mediates the relationship between loneliness and

excessive smartphone use.

1.2 Perceived stress as a moderator

As a major life transition, entering college can be considered a stressful event for

most young adults. Facing challenges from school, family, companions and within

oneself (Yan, Li, & Sui, 2014), peers may perceive high levels of stress. Perceived

stress is defined as a condition that as the lack of coping resources, individuals

imagine the situation be threatening or otherwise demanding (Cohen, Kamarck, &

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Mermelstein, 1983). Previous studies have found the significant correlation between

perceived stress and excessive smartphone use (Chiu, 2014; Samaha & Hawi, 2016).

When confronting with stressful environments and life events, young adults tend to

increase their Internet use for managing moods, compensating for social interaction

and escaping from reality (Leung, 2007).

The relationship between perceived stress and excessive smartphone use may not

be direct (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014b; Wang et al., 2015). Based on the Compensatory

Internet Use theory, the degree of life problems experienced by an individual

determined his/her motivations to cope with these problems, which implies that

his/her level of psychological well-being moderates the relationship between

motivation variables and excessive smartphone use (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014a).

Based on this logic, Kardefelt-Winther (2014b) found that people who scored higher

on perceived stress or lower on self-esteem and played mainly for escapism

motivation tended to experience more excessive outcomes than those who scored

lower on perceived stress or higher on self-esteem. Similarly, Wang et al. (2015)

investigated the effects of perceived stress and motivations on problematic

smartphone use among college students, and found that of the users who scored high

on problematic use, the relationship between entertainment or escapism motivation

and problematic smartphone use was moderated by perceived stress. As these lonely

individuals are more sensitive, when facing the same external pressures, their

personality traits may affect their perception of stress and further affect their mental

health.

Based on the aforementioned literature, we predicted that entertainment or

escapism motivation would mediate the relationship between loneliness and excessive

smartphone use and that mediation effects would differ from those scoring high and

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low on perceived stress. More narrowly, we predicted that perceived stress would

moderate the second stage of the mediation process (see Figure 1). Therefore, we put

forward our third and fourth hypotheses:

H3: Perceived stress is a second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation

mediating the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use.

H4: Perceived stress is a second-stage moderator of escapism motivation mediating

the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use.

Figure 1 Conceptual model

2 Methods

2.1 Participants

Recruited from two colleges in Chongqing, China, a total of 600 college students

participated in our research. From them, we obtained 549 (Mage = 18.39, SDage = 1.92,

34.8% male) valid questionnaires, and the response rate was 90%. All participants

identified themselves as smartphone users. Regarding their grades, 62.7% were first-

year students, 13.3% were sophomores, 23.7% were junior students, and 0.4% were

0.4% were senior students. In terms of their majors, 52.5% of the participants were

natural science (computer science, chemistry, physics, math and biology), and 46.7%

of them were social science (philosophy, politics education, law, business

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administration, economics and philology). All participants gave written informed

consent. The study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Center

for Mental Health Education, Southwest University.

2.2 Measures

2.2.1 Smartphone Addiction Scale for College Students (SAS-C)

Designed by Su et al. (2014), the self-report SAS-C scale contained 22 items.

Responses were obtained using a 5-point Likert scale, which ranged from 1 (strongly

disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The higher the scores, the higher levels of excessive

use are. Sample items included “If I couldn’t play with my smartphone for a while, I

would feel anxious” and “Because of my smartphone, my academic performance has

dropped.” The Cronbach coefficient in this study was .88. The scale also had good

construct validity and the estimates of the measurement model were χ 2/df = 1.46, CFI

= .93, IFI = .93, RMSEA = .05, SRMR <.001.

2.2.2 Smartphone Usage Motivation Scale

Items for measuring entertainment and escapism motivations for using smartphones

were adopted from the Social Media Usage Motivation Scale (Wang, Jackson, Wang,

& Gaskin, 2015). Then, the items were revised to fit the background of smartphone

use. All the items were in the form of a 5-point Likert scale, with a higher score

indicating a higher motivation. Entertainment motivation had five items, and sample

items included “I use my smartphone because it’s enjoyable” and “I use my

smartphone because it offers a pleasant experience”. Escapism motivation had three

items; sample items were “I use my smartphone to escape from my family or other

people” and “I use my smartphone to get away from what I’m doing”. In the present

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study, Cronbach coefficients were .89 and .84 for the entertainment and escapism

motivation, respectively. In addition, it also had good construct validity and the

estimates of the measurement model were χ 2/df = 3.44, CFI = .93, IFI = .93, RMSEA

= .06, SRMR <.001.

2.2.3 UCLA Loneliness Self-report Scale

Compiled by Russell et al. (1996), the UCLA loneliness self-report scale was used

in this study to assess the loneliness produced by the gap between the desired and

practical levels of social interaction. Including 20 items, the scale had 11 positive and

9 negative scores. Each item used a 5-point Likert scale, which ranged from 1 (never)

to 5 (always). The higher scores represented higher levels of loneliness. Sample items

included “Do you often feel a harmonious relationship with the people around you?”

and “Do you often feel a lack of companions?” In this study, the Cronbach coefficient

was .87. It had good construct validity and the estimates of the measurement model

were χ 2/df = 3.19, CFI = .92, IFI = .91, RMSEA = .06, SRMR <.001.

2.2.4 Perceived Stress Scale

Perceived stress scale was used to measure participants’ perceived level of control

over their lives in the past month, which was developed by Cohen et al. (1983). It

included 14 items and each item used a 5-point Likert scale, with a higher score

indicating a higher level of stress and lack of control. Sample items were “How often

have you felt that difficulties accumulated too much and cannot be overcome?” and

“How often have you felt that things were going in the way that you wanted them to

be?”. The Cronbach coefficient in this study was .87. It had good construct validity

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and the estimates of the measurement model were χ 2/df = 2.88, CFI = .93, IFI = .92,

RMSEA = .06, SRMR <.001.

2.3 Analytic Strategy

The moderated mediating effect took place when the mediation between the

independent variable and the dependent variable varied with different levels of the

moderator variable (Muller, Judd, & Yzerbyt, 2005). This emphasized that in different

situations or for individuals with different personalities, the mechanism of predictors

on the outcome variables whether remained the same. Combining Kwan’s (2012)

viewpoint with our study, we tested the second-stage moderated mediation effect,

which means the moderator (e.g., perceived stress) moderated the association between

the mediator (e.g., entertainment or escapism motivation) and excessive smartphone

use.

Including descriptive and moderated mediation analyses, we used SPSS 19.0 and

Mplus 7.4 in this study. We conducted descriptive statistics and correlation analysis

using SPSS 19.0 first. Regarding the analysis of moderated mediation, Latent

Moderated Structural Equation (LMS) was conducted by Mplus 7.4. As a method to

analyse the interaction effect of latent variables, LMS was implemented with Mplus

software (Muthén & Muthén, 2010). When the moderated mediating effect was

significant, we then followed Cohen et al.’s (2013) recommendations and plotted the

two slopes interpreting the nature of this multiple model. Besides, the statistical

significance of each of these two slopes was also examined (Aiken, West, & Reno,

1991), which represented the mediating effect between loneliness and excessive

smartphone use was /different at two levels of the moderator variable. Age and gender

were involved as control variables, considering that previous studies have shown that

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gender (Takao, Takahashi, & Kitamura, 2009) and age (Walsh, White, & Young,

2008) influenced smartphone use.

3 Results

3.1 Common method bias test

Based on the procedural control of possible common method bias (i.e., anonymous

filling for the questionnaire and reverse scoring for some items), we conducted single

method-factor approaches to test the common method bias of our study (Xiong et al.,

2012). First, confirmatory factor analysis model M1 and containing method factor

model M2 were also constructed. Then, we compared the main fit indices of model

M1and M2 and obtained the following results: Δχ 2/df = .013, ΔGFI = .016, ΔIFI

= .011, ΔNFI = .014, ΔRMSEA = 0. The fitting index changes were all less than 0.03,

which indicated that after joining the common method factor, the model has not been

significantly improved. That is to say, there was no obvious common method bias in

our measurement.

3.2 Descriptive analyses

Means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations of the variables for all the

participants were presented in Table 1. Loneliness had significantly positive

correlations with excessive smartphone use (r = .24, p < .01), perceived stress (r = .20,

p < .01) and escapism motivation (r = .20, p < .01), while had significantly negative

correlations with entertainment motivation (r = -.17, p < .01). In addition,

entertainment or escapism motivation, perceived stress and excessive smartphone use

both significantly correlated with each other (p < .01).

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Table 1. Means, Standard Deviations, and Zero-Order Correlations of the Variables for the
Participants (N = 549)
M SD 1 2 3 4 5
1 Smartphone Use 2.76 .65 —
2 Entertainment 3.25 .79 .24** —
3 Escapism 2.31 1.02 .41** .22** —
4 Stress 2.95 .38 .26** .17** .15** —
5 Loneliness 2.52 .49 .24** -.17** .20** .20** —
Note: p**< .01

3.3 Moderated Mediation Effect Analysis

Containing two motivation variables, two models respectively for entertainment

and escapism motivation were established. For model 1, we ran an LMS analysis

regarding H1 and H3, which included the mediator of entertainment motivation and

an interaction term between entertainment motivation and perceived stress. As shown

in Figure 2, besides having a direct impact on excessive use (β = .17, p < .01),

loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use through the mediating role of

entertainment motivation and the mediating effect value is - .05. This result verified

our H1. Then we found that the interaction term between perceived stress and

entertainment could significantly predict excessive smartphone use (β = .29, p < .001),

which meant perceived stress moderated the relationship between the mediator and

excessive smartphone use. Based on this, H3 was supported. That is to say, perceived

stress was a second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation mediating the

relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use.

/Please insert Figure 2 here/

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Table 2. Direct and Indirect Effects for Model 1

Motivation Beta coefficient p-Value

Entertainment
Use on Lon .17 .009
Use on Str .47 .000
Use on Ent .25 .000
Use on Str*Ent .29 .000
Ent on Lon -.18 .002
Str*Ent .69 .000
Note: Lon = loneliness; Str = perceived stress; Ent = entertainment; Use = excessive
smartphone use

To explore the influence mechanism between perceived stress and entertainment

motivation, we further conducted a simple slope analysis. Specifically, when

perceived stress was one standard deviation below and above the mean, the

relationship between entertainment motivation and excessive smartphone use was

plotted (See Figure 3). For the correspondence of the slopes with two levels of

perceived stress, the results showed that the association between entertainment

motivation and excessive smartphone use was significant for participants with low

perceived stress (β = .24, p < .001), while this association became non-significant for

participants with high perceived stress (β = .10, p = .28). This result indicates that the

effect of entertainment motivation on excessive smartphone use decreases with the

increase of perceived stress. With regard to the moderated mediation effect, the

mediating effect of entertainment motivation between loneliness and excessive

smartphone use decreases with the increase of perceived stress.

/Please insert Figure 3 here/

A similar procedure was conducted to test our H2 and H4. Model 2 included the

mediator of escapism motivation and an interaction term between escapism

motivation and perceived stress. As shown in Figure 3, in contrast to model 1,

loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use only through the mediating role of

escapism motivation and the mediating effect value is .12, which partially supported

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H2. Then we found the interaction term between perceived stress and escapism could

not significantly predict excessive smartphone use (β = .03, p = .686), which meant

that perceived stress didn’t moderate the relationship between the mediator and

excessive smartphone use. This result did not support our H4, which meant that

perceived stress was not a second-stage moderator of escapism motivation mediating

the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use.

Table 3. Direct and Indirect Effects for Model 2

Motivation Beta coefficient p-Value

Escapism
Use on Lon .02 .760
Use on Str .50 .000
Use on Esc .37 .000
Use on Str*Esc .03 .686
Esc on Lon .33 .000
Str*Esc .70 .000
Note: Lon = loneliness; Str = perceived stress; Esc = escapism; Use = excessive smartphone

use

/Please insert Figure 4 here/

4 Discussion

Our study aimed to examine whether entertainment or escapism motivation

mediated the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use and

whether perceived stress was a moderator between the mediator and excessive

smartphone use. Not only did we demonstrate the adherence of excessive smartphone

use to the theory of Compensatory Internet Use, but we also tried to clarify under

what conditions the mediation effect varied with different circumstances and personal

characteristics. From these perspectives, we obtained the results that perceived stress

was only a second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation mediating the

relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use. However, for escapism

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motivation, loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use only through the

mediating role of escapism motivation.

Of our four hypotheses, three have been supported by our findings. H1 and H2

indicated that the relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use

would be mediated by entertainment and escapism motivation. Regarding our findings,

H1 has been supported. We found that besides having a direct impact on excessive

use, loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use through the mediating role of

entertainment motivation. However, we obtained a significantly negative correlation

between loneliness and entertainment motivation, and that those scoring low on

loneliness could easily give rise to entertainment motivation to use their smartphones,

which was inconsistent with previous findings (Liu & Wang, 2011). This result may

occur because they are more gregarious and also more likely to entertain themselves

and experience satisfaction through smartphones, which would lead to their

continuous usage. While for individuals scoring high on loneliness, they would use

their smartphones to compensate for the lack of social interaction, from which they

easily experienced negative emotions. Regarding H2, loneliness could affect

excessive smartphone use only through the mediating role of escapism motivation. A

possible explanation is that the main motive of addictive behaviour is reducing the

state of negative emotion to escape (Peele, 1985). Following this logic, lonely

individuals are extremely anxious about establishing real interpersonal relationships.

They use the Internet to escape real-world interpersonal contact and they are also

more likely to have problems with smartphone use (Lo, Wang, & Fang, 2005).

Moreover, our study is among the first attempts to investigate the relationship

between motivations and psychological well-being on excessive smartphone use and

build two moderated mediation models to clarify under what conditions the mediation

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effect varies with perceived stress. As expected, we found a significant interaction

term between perceived stress and the mediator (e.g., entertainment), which could

significantly affect excessive smartphone use. From this, we knew that perceived

stress is a second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation mediating the

relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use, which confirmed our

H3. These findings are in line with previous studies (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014b; Wang

et al., 2015). For instance, Kardefelt-Winther (2014b) found that the interaction of

psychological well-being and escapism motivation led some people to be excessive

users, which may eventually result in excessive consequences. Likewise, Wang et al.

(2015) also indicated that the effects of motivations on excessive smartphone use

depended on the level of users’ perceived stress. These findings illustrated how the

multiple mechanisms between motivations and psychological well-being factors in

leading to excessive outcomes when using media serves as a major coping strategy for

life problems (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014a). Specifically, it should be noted that the

mediating effect of entertainment motivation between loneliness and excessive

smartphone use decreases with the increase of perceived stress. Therefore, when

designing interventions targeting at excessive users, mental health practitioners should

focus on alleviating loneliness and their level of perceived stress, rather than

overemphasizing the behavioural therapy to decrease users’ motivations.

Furthermore, our H4 was rejected. Despite a significant interaction term between

perceived stress and escapism motivation, perceived stress did not moderate the

relationship between the mediator of escapism motivation and excessive smartphone

use. Although perceived stress correlated significantly with excessive smartphone use

and escapism motivation (Snodgrass et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2015), perceived stress

was not a second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation mediating the

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relationship between loneliness and excessive smartphone use. The reason for these

findings might be that only a minority of smartphone users experience excessive

outcomes (Kardefelt-Winther, 2014b), for those scoring lower on excessive

smartphone use may play it only for escapism – nothing to do with a negative life

situation (Wang et al., 2015).

Several study limitations should also be acknowledged. First, our sample included

only college students. Cautions should be exercised when the conclusions are

generalized to other populations. However, it is worth noting that our sample also

represents the largest smartphone user group in China (Wang et al., 2015). Second,

the essence of our study is a cross-sectional design. When it comes to causality,

special attention should be devoted to the interpretation of our results. Future studies

may use experimental and longitudinal designs, which could identify causal

relationships among these variables. In addition, the types of smartphones and usage

patterns of the participants have not been well controlled in our study. Knobloch-

Westerwick et al. (2009) noted that it should be crucial to investigate how specific

media content provides solutions for real-life problems in a more detailed manner.

Future researchers should consider whether different types and functions of

smartphones reflect different motivations for their use; this subdivision of usage

patterns may be more useful for understanding the mechanism behind the overuse of

smartphones.

5 Conclusion

In sum, we found that loneliness could affect excessive smartphone use only

through the mediating role of escapism motivation. However, perceived stress was a

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second-stage moderator of entertainment motivation mediating the relationship

between loneliness and excessive smartphone use, and the mediating effect of

entertainment motivation between loneliness and excessive smartphone use decreased

with the increase of perceived stress. Therefore, our study clarified under what

conditions the mediation effect between motivation and excessive smartphone varied

with different circumstances and personal characteristics, and suggested that the

excessive users utilize their smartphones as a strategy to cope with life problems. In

this regard, future researchers can take this as a starting point to intervene with users

who use their smartphones excessively.

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Figures

Fig.2. Path graph of the moderated mediation model for entertainment motivation

Note: Lon = Loneliness; Str = perceived stress; Ent = entertainment; Use = Excessive

smartphone use; in figure 2 all coefficients are significant.

Fig.3. A diagram of perceived stress moderate the relationship between the mediator (i.e.

entertainment motivation) and excessive smartphone use

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Fig.4. Path graph of the moderated mediation model for escapism motivation

Note: Lon = Loneliness; Str = perceived stress; Esc = escapism; Use = Excessive smartphone

use; all coefficients are significant in figure 3.

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Highlights
 Analyzed the moderated mediation effect of perceived stress and motivation
between loneliness and excessive smartphone use
 Formulated the importance of unsolved life problems in facilitating excessive
smartphone use
 Provide a new perspective for researchers to design interventions for the
excessive smartphone users