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Current Psychology (2022) 41:8070–8077

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01262-6

How does social anxiety affect Mobile phone dependence


in adolescents? The mediating role of self-concept clarity
and self-esteem
Fanchang Kong 1 & Ningning Lan 1 & Haibo Zhang 1 & Xiaojun Sun 1 & Yan Zhang 2

Accepted: 3 December 2020 / Published online: 7 January 2021


# The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship of social anxiety, self-concept clarity, self-esteem and adoles-
cents’ 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 signifi-
cantly 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.

Keywords Social anxiety . Mobile phone dependence . Self-concept clarity . Self-esteem . Adolescent

Introduction and tend to rely more on mobile phones (Vacaru, Shepherd, &
Sheridan, 2014). Mobile phone dependence, also known as
According to the International Telecommunication Union mobile phone addiction, refers to an individual’s excessive
(ITU), mobile phone users accounted for 96.6% of the world use of mobile phones that results in physical, psychological,
population (ITU, 2019). In China, by June 2020, 99.2% of and social impairments because of obsession (Yen et al.,
932 million Internet users have used mobile phones for net- 2009). Frequent and prolonged use of mobile phones leads
working activities (China Internet Network Information to visual impairment and vegetative neurological disorders
Center, 2020). Thus, it clearly demonstrates that the link be- in adolescents, such as headaches, palpitations, tightening of
tween personal life and mobile phone use is becoming increas- the chest, and symptoms of dyspnea (Yellowlees & Marks,
ingly stronger worldwide. Meanwhile, while enjoying the 2007). Misra, Cheng, Genevie, and Yuan (2014) reported that
great convenience brought by mobile phones, the problems mobile devices can divert individuals from face-to-face ex-
they cause should not be overlooked. Moreover, compared changes and undermine the characteristic and depth of these
with adults, adolescents can adapt to new technology faster connections. The effect of the potential and the connections
will significantly affect the quality of interpersonal emotional
communication, learning, and work efficiency (Park, 2005).
* Fanchang Kong Social anxiety is an important factor affecting mobile phone
kfcpsy@mail.ccnu.edu.cn
dependence (Enez Darcin et al., 2016; Kim & Koh, 2018;
* Yan Zhang Kong, Qin, Huang, Zhang, & Lei, 2020). Therefore, clarifying
Zhangyan1981@hust.edu.cn
the internal mechanisms of social anxiety and adolescents’
1 mobile phone dependence is important—theoretically and
Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior
(Ministry of Education), School of Psychology, Central China practically—in the prevention and intervention of mobile
Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China phone addiction.
2
School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Social anxiety was defined as anxiety resulting from the
Technology, Wuhan 430074, China prospect or presence of personal evaluation in real or
Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077 8071

imagined social situations (Schlenker & Leary, 1982). addition, adolescents with low self-esteem are likely to vent
Socially anxious individuals will likely become addicted to their emotions and release pressure online to obtain instant
mobile phones or become mobile phone dependent (Gao psychological satisfaction (Mei, Chai, & Guo, 2015), which
et al., 2018; Kim & Koh, 2018; Kong et al., 2020). The social lead subsequently to frequent use of mobile phone (Hong,
phobia model indicates that an individual’s attention resources Chiu, & Huang, 2012). Specifically, highly implicit self-
in the case of social phobia are allocated to the salient aspects esteem predicted dangerous mobile phone use (Lannoy
of self-image (features that are relevant to the situation and et al., 2020). Therefore, this study hypothesizes that social
potentially negative) and monitoring of potential external anxiety affects adolescents’ mobile phone dependence
threats (frowning and signs of boredom) (Rapee & through self-esteem (H3).
Heimberg, 1997). Anxious individuals can choose to present Self-concept clarity is an important predictor of self-esteem
a positive self-image online and avoid negative evaluation (Błażek & Besta, 2012; Li, Zha, Liang, Yang, & Zheng, 2017).
from others. Therefore, individuals with social anxiety will Self-concept clarity belongs to the structural level of self-
likely use mobile phones to surf the Internet. According to concept that refers to the organization of self-related compo-
the social compensation hypothesis, socially anxious individ- nents (Campbell et al., 1996), such as “I often have conflicting
uals tend to use the Internet for interpersonal communication views on myself,” whereas self-esteem belongs to the content
to compensate for their disadvantages in interpersonal com- level, such as “How do I feel about myself?” (Wong, Vallacher,
munication in real life and meet their emotional needs, such as & Nowak, 2016). In addition, according to group dynamics
the sense of belonging and respect (Desjarlais & Willoughby, theory (Vallacher, Van Geert, & Nowak, 2015; Wong et al.,
2010). Such individuals will likely use social networks rather 2016), the structure of a system will affect its content. Thus,
than face-to-face interpersonal communication. Therefore, self-concept clarity affects self-esteem. Individuals with low
this study hypothesizes that social anxiety will positively pre- self-concept clarity often experience heightened negative emo-
dict adolescents’ mobile phone dependence (H1). tions (Campbell et al., 1996). According to Broaden-and-Build
Self-concept clarity indicates the extent to which an indi- Theory of Positive Emotions, negative emotions will reduce
vidual defines one’s self-concept clearly and consistently, the instantaneous thinking and sequential activities of an indi-
which represents a clear and stable self-cognition belonging vidual and hinder the construction of individual resources
to a kind of internal psychological structure (Campbell et al., (Fredrickson, 2001), whereas self-esteem is an important psy-
1996). A significant negative correlation exists between anx- chological resource of an individual. Thus, individuals with
iety and self-concept clarity (Wu, Wei, Zhang, Qiu, & Zhao, vague self-concept experience heightened negative emotions
2017). Moreover, individuals with social anxiety are biased that increasingly affect their self-esteem level. Social anxiety
toward the negative information related to themselves (Wilson can place double pressure on the inner and outer psychological
& Rapee, 2006). These inaccurate perceptions lead an indi- behaviors of an individual (Liu, Pan, Li, Meng, & Zhang,
vidual to doubt their self-knowledge and further threaten their 2017), and such pressure destroys self-system leading to the
self-concept clarity (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999). reduction of self-concept clarity and self-esteem (Ritchie,
Furthermore, individuals with low self-concept clarity tend Sedikides, Wildschut, Arndt, & Gidron, 2011). Consequently,
to feel inferior, be introverted, not fully understand their abil- the shortcomings in real circumstances are compensated
ities, and look for alternative satisfaction through social net- through the network. Therefore, this present research hypothe-
works (Jin, Wu, Guo, & Zhang, 2015). Therefore, as a threat- sizes that social anxiety will affect the adolescents’ mobile
ening factor, social anxiety may reduce self-concept clarity phone dependence through the mediating role of self-concept
and subsequently trigger mobile phone dependence. This clarity and self-esteem (H4).
study hypothesized that self-concept clarity will mediate the Ultimately, the present study constructed a serial media-
associations between social anxiety and adolescents’ mobile tions model to investigate how social anxiety affects adoles-
phone dependence (H2). cents’ mobile phone dependence and the role of self-concept
As an important psychological merit, self-esteem is a cen- clarity and self-esteem. Figure 1 shows the conceptual model
tral component of the self that refers to how people feel about of the relationships between social anxiety, self-control, self-
themselves; this feeling affects how an individual confronts esteem, and adolescent mobile phone dependence.
the surrounding environment (Kernis, 2003). People with high
social anxiety have lower levels of explicit self-esteem than
those with low social anxiety (Xiao & Huang, 2011). The Method
association between social anxiety and self-esteem was also
confirmed in patients with social anxiety disorder. Participants and Procedures
Specifically, the levels of explicit and implicit self-esteem in
social anxiety disorder groups were lower than those not in the Materials and procedures used in our study were approved by
group (Ritter, Ertel, Beil, Steffens, & Stangier, 2013). In the Ethical Committee for Scientific Research at the authors’
8072 Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077

+ to 5 (very consistent). The total score indicated the level of


Self-concept clarity Self-esteem
H4 social anxiety of adolescents. The revised scale has good reli-
ability and validity (Tong et al., 2017). In this study, the
H2 _ Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .78.
_ _ _
H3
Self-Concept Clarity Scale
+ Mobile phone
Social anxiety
H1 dependence The scale was developed by Campbell et al. (1996) and re-
vised by Niu et al. (2016). The scale has 12 items (such as “I
Fig. 1 Conceptual model
often have conflicting views on myself”), using a 7-point
scale, from 1 (very inconsistent) to 7 (very consistent). The
institution. Before the survey, we emphasized that each stu- total score indicates the degree of self-concept clarity of ado-
dent had the right to withdraw from the survey at any stage. lescents. It is used widely and has good reliability and validity
All students and their teachers and parents provided oral in- (Niu et al., 2016). In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coeffi-
formed consent. We randomly recruited two classes from each cient was .86.
of the three grades from two middle schools in China. We
asked the teachers to distribute 1210 questionnaires in class Self-Esteem Scale
within one week. The participants completed the Self-rating
Questionnaire for Adolescent Problematic Mobile Phone Use, The scale was established by Rosenberg (1965), which includ-
Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents, Self-concept Clarity ed 10 questions (such as “I feel that I have many good qual-
Scale, and Self-esteem Scale. After eliminating the blank, in- ities”), using a 4-point Likert scale, from 1 (very inconsistent)
complete, and wrongly answered questionnaires, we finally to 4 (very consistent). Among them, the item “I hope I can
obtained 1201 valid questionnaires with an effective response earn more respect for myself” was a serious social desire
ratio of 99.25%. A total of 473 (39.4%) junior and 728 among Chinese populations. Thus, some studies suggested
(60.6%) senior high school students with 567 (47.2%) boys that deleting this item will improve the scale’s reliability and
and 634 (52.8%) girls participated in the final sample. The validity (i.e., Tian, 2006). Thus, the self-esteem scale in the
mean age was 15.42 years (SD = 1.92) with an age range of current study comprises nine items. The total score of the scale
14–17 years. The skewness index was −.19. indicated the degree of self-esteem. The revised scale has ex-
cellent reliability and validity (Tian, 2006). The Cronbach’s
Measures alpha coefficient in this study was .89.

Self-Rating Questionnaire for Adolescent Problematic Mobile Statistical Analyses


Phone Use
On the basis of prior studies (Kong et al., 2020), we included
The scale was developed by Tao, Fu, Wang, Hao, and Tao age and gender as the control variables in the statistical anal-
(2013), which included 13 items and four dimensions regard- ysis for more rigorous results. In this research, we first adopted
ing withdrawal symptoms, physical and mental influence, and SPSS 23.0 for descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation
craving symptoms. For example, “I always feel lost without analyses. We then used the PROCESS macro for SPSS to test
my phone.” Each item was rated by the 5-point Likert scale, the multiple mediating roles of self-clarify and self-esteem.
from 1 (very inconsistent) to 5 (very consistent). The total The PROCESS macro is specifically developed for path
score indicated the degree of mobile phone dependence. The analysis-based moderation and mediation analysis and their
scale has good reliability and validity, the Cronbach’s alpha combination (Hayes, 2013). The 95% bias-corrected confi-
coefficient was .87, and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of dence intervals of the direct and indirect effects are estimated
each dimension was between .58 and .83 (Tao et al., 2013). In from 5000 resamples of the data. The effects are significant
this study, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .88. when the confidence intervals do not include zero (Erceg-
Hurn & Mirosevich, 2008).
Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents
Common Method Bias
The scale was compiled by La Greca and Lopez (1998), and
its applicability in Chinese adolescents was verified by Tong, On the basis of Zhou and Long (2004), this study used
Qiao, Lian, and Zhang (2017). It comprises five items, such as Harman single factor method to test for common method bias.
“I feel nervous in front of specific people”, and each item was Exploratory factor analysis showed that there exist seven fac-
evaluated by a 5-point Likert scale, from 1 (very inconsistent) tors, wherein the interpretation rate of the first factor was
Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077 8073

27.17%, which was less than 40% of the reference value. This was mainly through these three indirect (Ind) paths. For
result indicated that no serious common method bias existed example, Ind1: social anxiety → self-conceptual clarity
in this study. → mobile phone dependence (.11), which explained
27.91% of the total effect. Ind2: social anxiety → self-
conceptual clarity → self-esteem → mobile phone depen-
dence (.02), which explained 3.92% of the total effect.
Results
Ind3: social anxiety → self-esteem → mobile phone depen-
dence (.01), which explained 3.38% of the total effect. The
Preliminary Analyses
Bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the three paths did
not include zero, indicating that the three effects were sig-
The results showed that social anxiety was significantly neg-
nificant (Table 3).
atively correlated with self-concept clarity and self-esteem but
positively correlated with mobile phone dependence.
Meanwhile, self-concept clarity was significantly positively
correlated with self-esteem but negatively correlated with mo-
Discussion
bile phone dependence and self-esteem was significantly neg-
atively correlated with mobile phone dependence (Table 1).
Social Anxiety Affects Adolescent Mobile Phone
Dependence
Testing for the Serial Mediation Model
The present study showed that social anxiety positively pre-
According to the PROCESS macro compiled by Hayes dicted adolescents’ mobile phone dependence and supported
(2013), model 6 was selected for serial mediation model anal- H1. Davis (2001) pointed out that individuals with existing
ysis (Table 2) and the model was shown in Fig. 2. The results psychopathological factors, such as social anxiety, could
showed that after controlling gender and age, social anxiety lead to the pathological use of the Internet. During face-to-
can significantly positively predict the adolescents’ mobile face communication, people with social anxiety often have
phone dependence (β = .26, t = 8.96, p < .001), also negatively behavioral manifestations, such as tension, sweating, short-
predict self-concept clarity (β = −.45, t = −17.64, p < .001) ness of breath, and palpitation (Panzer, Viljoen, & Roos,
and self-esteem (β = −.19, t = −7.15, p < .001). At the same 2007). However, social networking could transfer informa-
time, self-concept clarity can significantly positively predict tion or emotions to other people through text and images,
self-esteem (β = .48, t = 18.33, p < .001), and negatively pre- which could protect socially anxious adolescents from
dict adolescents’ mobile phone dependence (β = −.25, t = face-to-face interactions (He, Chen, He, & Zhou, 2014).
−7.67, p < .001). Self-esteem had a negative predictive effect Given that online communication creates a relatively safe
on adolescents’ mobile phone dependence (β = −.07, t = environment, anxious individuals can send refined pictures
−2.30, p < .05). and well-written texts to other people and alleviate their anx-
The mediating effect analysis results showed that self- iety (He et al., 2014). Our findings are also consistent with
concept clarity and self-esteem played a mediating role Kong et al. (2020), which support that social anxiety is a vital
between social anxiety and adolescents’ mobile phone de- risk factor for adolescents’ mobile phone dependence. Thus,
pendence. The total indirect effect value was .14, account- the current study verified the effectiveness of the social pho-
ing for 35.22% of the total effect of social anxiety on ad- bia model and social compensation hypothesis on mobile
olescents’ mobile phone dependence (.40). The effect of phone use by adolescents and expanded the scope of appli-
social anxiety on adolescents’ mobile phone dependence cation of theories to Chinese adolescents.

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of variables

Variables M SD Range Skewness 1 2 3 4 5

1.Gender 1.53 .50 – −.11 –


2.Age 3.01 .76 3 −.19 −.08** –
3.Social anxiety 13.85 4.42 20 .09 .09** −.01 –
4.Self-concept clarity 37.91 8.74 47 −.15 −.06* .07* −.46** –
5.Self-esteem 26.79 4.79 27 −.31 −.08** .06* −.41** .57** –
6.Mobile phone dependence 25.76 8.38 52 .52 .08** −.06* .41** −.41** −.33**
*
p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001. N = 1201, similar to the following tables
8074 Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077

Table 2 Mediation analysis


Outcome variables Independent variables β SE t p

Self-concept clarity age .08 .03 2.235 .03


Gender −.03 .05 −.56 .58
Social anxiety −.45*** .03 −17.64 < .001
Self-esteem age .03 .03 1.05 .29
Gender −.08 .05 −1.62 .10
Self-concept clarity .48*** .03 18.33 < .001
Social anxiety −.19*** .03 −7.15 < .001
Mobile phone dependence age −.04 .03 −1.25 .21
Gender .07 .05 1.39 .16
Self-concept clarity −.25*** .03 −7.67 < .001
Self-esteem −.07* .03 −2.30 .02
Social anxiety .26*** .03 8.96 < .001

Role of Self-Concept Clarity and Self-Esteem in Social increased automatic selectivity and satisfied experiences for
Anxiety and Mobile Phone Dependence in adolescents (Vacaru et al., 2014). Thus, social anxiety
Adolescents weakens adolescents’ self-conception clarify during face-to-
face communication, and they turn to online communication
Social anxiety positively predicted the mobile phone depen- on the basis of mobile phones to compensate the deprivation
dence among Chinese adolescents in three specific paths. of self-related feedback, finally leading to excessive mobile
First, social anxiety significantly predicted adolescents’ mo- phone use.
bile phone dependence through the mediating effect of self- Second, social anxiety significantly predicted adolescents’
concept clarity, which supported H2. This finding indicated mobile phone dependence through the mediating role of self-
that social anxiety could possibly reduce adolescents’ levels of esteem, which suggested that social anxiety could reduce the
self-concept clarity, eliciting their excessive dependence on self-esteem of adolescents and further lead to mobile phone
mobile phones. Socially anxious individuals tend to have am- dependence. This finding, which supported H3, was also con-
biguous self-concepts (Van Dijk et al., 2013), and vague self- sistent with those of previous studies wherein patients with
concept is a risk factor that influences adolescents to become social anxiety had significantly lower explicit self-esteem rel-
Internet addicts (Jin et al., 2015). Moreover, when individuals ative to healthy controls (Ritter et al., 2013). Another study
entered adolescence from childhood, it is an important mile- also showed adolescents with low levels of self-esteem could
stone to cultivate a clear self-concept (Steinberg, 2005). The gain additional social capital from social networking sites,
development of self-conceptions was influenced by three fac- such as Facebook (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007).
tors, namely, their past experiences, other people’s evalua- Socially anxious individuals are passive and negative in their
tions, and society’s evaluation. However, socially anxious ad- interpersonal communications and the accumulation of nega-
olescents often avoid interpersonal communication to protect tive experiences in self-worth subsequently weakens their
themselves from the evaluation of others and society (He self-esteem. Accordingly, the online social environment could
et al., 2014), which would not be conducive in forming clear meet the emotional needs of adolescents with low levels of
self-concept. In addition, the richness and diversity of infor- self-esteem and increase the risk of mobile phone dependence.
mation existing in the mobile social networking offers Therefore, improving one’s self-esteem could be a useful
method to prevent mobile phone dependence among adoles-
cents with social anxiety.
.48***
Self-concept clarity Self-esteem Finally, social anxiety significantly predicted adolescents’
mobile phone dependence through the serial mediation of self-
concept clarity and self-esteem, which supported H4. The
−.45*** −.19*** −.25*** −.07* present study indicated that adolescents with social anxiety
possibly had low levels of self-concept clarity, which subse-
quently decreased their levels of self-esteem and finally in-
.26*** Mobile phone
Social anxiety creased their mobile phone usage. Błażek and Besta (2012)
dependence
stated that people with high levels of self-concept clarity had
Fig. 2 Multiple mediation model high levels of self-esteem. Our findings indicated that self-
Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077 8075

Table 3 Analysis of the


mediating effects of self-concept Effect Boot SE BootLLCI BootULCI Relative mediating effect
clarity and self-esteem
Direct effect .26 .03 .20 .31 64.80%
Total indirect effect .14 .02 .11 .18 35.22%
Indirect effect 1 .11 .02 .08 .15 27.91%
Indirect effect 2 .02 .01 .001 .03 3.92%
Indirect effect 3 .01 .01 .001 .03 3.38%

Bootstrap sample size = 5000. LL = low limit. CI = confidence interval. UL = upper limit

concept clarity and self-esteem are preventive factors for mo- phone dependence from the perspective of individual factors.
bile phone dependence among Chinese adolescents. Hence, However, mobile phone dependence is often affected by the
this study also extended group dynamics theory (Vallacher interaction between individuals and the environment, such as
et al., 2015; Wong et al., 2016) into the context of mobile parenting style and peer relationships. Thus, future studies
phone dependence. should include major environmental factors to investigate these
The present study constructed a serial mediation model to factors that affect adolescents’ mobile phone dependence sys-
explain the relationship between social anxiety and mobile tematically. Third, in addition to the dual mediating model,
phone dependence among Chinese adolescents, which clar- social anxiety might have other complex effects on adoles-
ifies how social anxiety affects adolescents’ mobile phone cents’ mobile phone dependence, such as moderated or multi-
dependence and enrich theories about mobile phone depen- ple mediation models. Future studies can further test these
dence. In practice, our findings indicated that the intervention models on the basis of different theories.
or protection of mobile phone dependence can be established
through four different aspects: First, to reduce the risk of mo- Authors’ Contributions KF conceptualized and executed the study, ana-
lyzed the data, and led the writing of the manuscript. LN and ZH analyzed
bile phone dependence, releasing adolescents’ social anxiety
the data and wrote the paper. SX and ZY reviewed the manuscript con-
through relaxation training is important (Aritzeta et al., 2017). tent. All authors contributed to the development of this manuscript,
Second, evaluating the level of self-esteem can significantly reviewed drafts, and approved the final version.
decrease mobile phone dependence among adolescents.
Third, promoting the level of self-conception clarity can also Funding This work was supported by The Ministry of Education of
be an effective way to reduce mobile phone dependence. For Humanities and Social Science project (17YJC190008), the Research
Program Funds of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment
example, individuals with low self-concept clarity tend to feel toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University
inferior, be introverted, not fully understand their abilities, and (KJ02252018–0104), fund for building world-class universities
look for alternative satisfaction through social networks (Jin (disciplines) of Renmin University of China (RUCPSY0001) and
et al., 2015). Maxwell (1989) showed that mediation training Fundamental Research Funds of Central China Normal University
(CCNU19QN042). The funders had no role in study design, data collec-
can provide practice in communication and problem-solving tion and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
skills that are applicable to many other areas of their lives.
Finally, improving adolescents’ self-esteem and self- Data Availability The datasets used or analyzed during the current study
conception clarify together is ideal to help adolescents with are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
social anxiety complete self-identity and develop healthy be-
haviors on mobile phone. For example, initiating positive self- Compliance with Ethical Standards
image can improve the self-esteem of individuals with social
anxiety (Hulme, Hirsch, & Stopa, 2012). Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interest.

Ethical Approval The procedures for human participants involved in


Limitations this study are consistent with the ethical standards of the authors’
institution.
The present study has several limitations. First, our study used
two middle schools as the sample to investigate the relationship Consent to Participants Informed consent was obtained from all partic-
ipants included in the study.
between social anxiety and mobile phone dependence among
Chinese adolescents. It should draw our attention when apply- Consent for Publication All authors agreed to public this manuscript.
ing the findings into other populations. Future studies should
increase sample size and scope to test the effects of social Code Availability The code used for analyzing data are available from
anxiety on adolescents’ mobile phone dependence. Second, the corresponding author on reasonable request.
our study examined the effects of social anxiety on mobile
8076 Curr Psychol (2022) 41:8070–8077

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