The Relationship Between Loneliness And Problematic Mobile Social Network Use Among Left-behind Junior Middle School Students:A Moderated Mediation Model

Problematic mobile social network use is a category of behavior that causes mental health problems due to excessive use of social networks.According to the National Study Report on Internet Usage of Minors in 2020,the overall size of China’s underage Internet users is still growing,with the number reaching 183 million and the Internet penetration rate at 94%.Nowadays,new smart terminals are popularizing rapidly,and mobile communication devices such as cell phones have become the preferred Internet access devices for underage Internet users.Left-behind junior high school students often need mobile communication devices to keep in touch with their parents because their parents are not around,and most parents will give their children intelligent mobile terminal devices to support their children to keep in touch with them.However,for the group of left-behind junior high school students in adolescence,they tend to establish close relationships through social networks to obtain psychological satisfaction in order to reduce the loneliness caused by the long-term lack of parental companionship,and over time,they tend to avoid the real society and increase their anxiety about the real society.In this process,left-behind junior high school students with weak self-control are difficult to resist the temptation of social networks,and thus are more likely to develop problematic mobile social network use,which affects their healthy physical and mental development.Therefore,this study explored the mediating role of social anxiety in the loneliness of left-behind junior high school students on problematic mobile social network use based on use and satisfaction theory and social control theory,and further examined whether the mediating effect was moderated by school connectedness.This study used the Adolescent Problematic Mobile Social Network Use Scale,the Loneliness Scale(UCLA),the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents(SAS-A),and the School Connectedness Scale as the main research instruments to conduct a questionnaire survey in three rural middle schools in Huaihua City,aiming to investigate the relationship between loneliness and problematic mobile social network use among left-behind middle school students.In this questionnaire survey,a total of 1020 valid questionnaires were obtained from left-behind junior high school students,and after statistical analysis of the obtained data,the results of this study are as follows.1.the problematic mobile social network use of left-behind junior high school students differed significantly in terms of gender and grade level.2.There were significant correlations between loneliness,social anxiety,school connectedness,and problematic mobile social network use among the left-behind junior high school students.3.Loneliness and social anxiety positively predicted problematic mobile social network use among junior high school students;school connectedness negatively predicted problematic mobile social network use among junior high school students.4.Social anxiety partially mediated the relationship between loneliness and problematic mobile social network use among junior high school students.5.School connectedness played a negative moderating role in the second half of the pathway of the mediating effect of social anxiety on loneliness and problematic mobile social network use of left-behind junior high school students.Conclusion: Loneliness of left-behind middle school students can both directly affect problematic mobile social network use and play an indirect role through loneliness;however,school connectedness as a protective factor can effectively mitigate the effect of social anxiety on problematic mobile social network use.Based on the above findings,the problematic mobile social network use of left-behind junior high school students can be alleviated in the following four ways: reducing the loneliness of left-behind junior high school students;alleviating the social anxiety of left-behind junior high school students;enhancing the school connection of left-behind junior high school students;and correctly guiding left-behind junior high school students to use mobile social networks reasonably.