Correlational Research on Mobile Phone Addiction and the Interpersonal Relationship Distress of Chinese College Students

: In this essay, we utilized the following scales: Mobile and Internet Addiction Test, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, Negative Coping Style Questionnaire


Theoretical Reflection on the Related Research
'Mobile phone addiction' is a term invented in light of the rapid development of mobile communication devices and comes from the concepts of behavioral addiction and technology addiction. Certain scholars also call it 'problematic mobile phone use', 'excessive mobile phone use', 'mobile phone dependence' and so forth, trying to explain the behavior related to the excessive use of cell phones.
Comparing studies performed domestically and abroad, we discovered that foreign researchers are used to describing and defining mobile phone addiction, concentrating on mobile phone use problems. For example, Bianchi and Phillip (2005) first utilized the term 'mobile phone problem' to describe the trend stemming from mobile phone addiction.
They were referring to situations in which the use of a mobile phone is prohibited or in which there is a potential danger in the use of a mobile phone; where people continued the use of mobile phones regardless, due to a lack of social or self-control (Bianchi & Philips 2005, 39-51).
Moreover, 'mobile phone addiction tendency' in China outlines mobile phone addiction. Jianguo Shi described it as a state of compulsion, in which individuals' physical, psychological and social functions are significantly impaired due to their out-of-control use of mobile phones (Shi 2009, 138-139). Shanshan Hu deemed the addiction to mobile phones inappropriate and declared that excessive use leads to uncontrolled use of mobile phones (Hu 2015). Thus, normal psychological and social functions are affected. In addition, this is the final stage of an addiction that meets the diagnostic criteria after excessive usage of mobile phones. Specific Chinese scholars also define mobile phone addiction as 'smartphone addiction'. Shuang Su (2014) suggested the concept of smartphone addiction in his study among college students, listing the personal psychological or behavioral problems caused by smartphone abuse (Su, Pan, Liu et al. 2014, 392-397).
There is no common consensus in academic circles on mobile phone addiction. Still, most researchers from the field of psychology tend to include mobile phone addiction in the behavioral addiction category. They broadly define it as a physical, psychological and social function impairment caused by an individual's uncontrollable mobile phone use (Lopez-Fernandez, Kuss, Griffiths, & Billieux 2015). This research will utilize the widely accepted concept of mobile phone addiction to conduct further research.
Previous studies on mobile phone addiction primarily focus on exploring the influencing factors of mobile phone addiction and a person's core traits (personality, social cognition, psychopathology, etc.), subjective perception (negative emotions, personal conflict, social support, etc.), emotional responses (coping styles, internet-related expectations, etc.) and family environment (parental match, parenting style, attachment, etc.). Furthermore, some studies utilize mobile phone addiction as an antecedent variable to investigate the adverse effects of mobile phone addiction on individuals, like academic procrastination, creativity, depression, academic burnout, academic performance, and sleep quality etc. however, the researchers also discovered that in addition to the adverse effects of mobile phone addiction on college student's intellectual, physical and mental health, it also impacts their social functions.
In the existing research, only certain scholars have explored the mechanism behind the effect of mobile phone addiction on interpersonal relationship distress. Broadly, an interpersonal relationship refers to the psychological relationship between people in a society. Narrowly, an interpersonal relationship refers to the direct psychological distance established in interpersonal communication and interaction (Tan & Yang 2018).
Carl Rogers (1962) highlights that if individuals can develop friendly relations with others in an objective environment and satisfy a specific inner desire (psychological, power, interpersonal, or other factors), they can form relatively stable and harmonious interpersonal relationships (Rogers 1962, 416-429) . Zheng Xue (2007) believed that an interpersonal relationship refers to the direct psychological distance established by people during the communication process, and that it is an interdependent and interrelated social relationship formed by the public as a result of contact (Zheng 2004). Interpersonal distress refers to the psychological maladjustment and conflicts that people experience in interpersonal communication that is conducive to establishing interdependent and interconnected social relations (Deng 2021). The interpersonal relationship can either directly or indirectly affect people's psychological and social environment, and is also influenced by people's psychological and social environment (Chen 2008). Throughout a correlational study of the interpersonal relationship and mobile phone use, Gong Yanping et al. found that reliance on mobile phones can trigger mobile phone snub behavior, and affect the quality of interpersonal relationships, as well as the subjective well-being and the conduct of interpersonal objects (Gong, Chen, Xie, & Xie 2019, 1258-1267. Relying on cell phones for extended periods will cause the average interpersonal time of college students to decrease gradually, causing a deeper degree of interpersonal distress and proneness to feelings of loneliness, and even provoke interpersonal apathy, thus seriously affecting their normal interpersonal relationships during their college years and even after they entered society as adults (Song & Zhou 2020, 122-124).
This study proposes the following Hypothesis 1: Mobile phone addiction can significantly predict relationship distress.
While exploring the mechanism behind the effect of mobile phone addiction on interpersonal relationship distress, it is critical to examine whether different variables influence the relationship between addiction to mobile phones and interpersonal relationship distress. Additionally, the basic psychological needs and negative coping styles may be crucial mediating variables. The concept of basic psychological needs was developed by Deci and Ryan (2000) as part of the theory of self-determination in which "need" is defined as the "nourishment" essential for psychological growth, integration, and well-being (Deci & Ryan 2000, 227-268). Deci and Ryan claim that humans have three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and belonging. First, the autonomous need is the need to have a high degree of self-determination in a specific activity or behavior; next, the ability need is the need to be able to perform particular actions or tasks; lastly; while a relationship need is an individual's need for support, love, and understanding within their environment or from others. According to the self-determination theory, it is argued that the internet caters to the needs of self-determination, competence and relationships established by teenagers. Teenagers who are blocked from meeting their psychological needs in natural life turn to the online world for alternative gratification (Ryan, Rigby & Przybylski 2006, 347-364). Furthermore, internet game addiction has also affected the basic psychological needs of young people . Zhang Yongqiang et al. (2017) discovered that basic psychological needs play a mediating role in the effects of social support and internet addiction (Zhang, Liu & Zhou 2017, 15-18) ;Liang Qiao et al. (2019) found in their research that basic psychological needs play a mediating part in peer aggression and online game addiction among Chinese adolescents (Liang, Chen, Xie, & Wie 2019, 61-64). Simultaneously, other researchers found that it can improve the self-efficacy of their interpersonal relationships by fulfilling the psychological needs of college students (Gan 2015, 61-64). If the young person exhibits a sense of autonomy and competence and meets the requirements related to independence and competence, their interpersonal adaptability level will be improved (Li, Liu & Yao 2019, 827-833). Satisfying the basic psychological needs of college students in the network holds an intermediary place in the self-disclosure of the network and the role of interpersonal network trust (Kuang 2018).
Further, this study proposes Hypothesis 2: The basic psychological needs of college students play an intermediary role between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress.
A coping style refers to the process of cognition and hard action undertaken by an individual to mitigate the adverse effects of a disturbing situation. That can be spread into two types: negative coping and positive coping. College students' negative emotions and coping styles entirely mediate the effect of loneliness on mobile phone addiction (Xiong, Yuan, Zhang, & Li 2018, 1857-1861. Negative coping styles mediate and regulate college students' loneliness and mobile phone dependence (He, Wang & Hui 2018, 1222-1225. Qiu Zhiyan et al. (2021) asserted that a significant positive correlation existed between negative coping styles and mobile phone addiction. Negative coping type plays a mediating role concerning the effect of self-identity on mobile phone addiction (Qiu, Mao, Wu et al. 2021, 6-10). Studies on the relationship between negative coping styles and interpersonal relationships highlight a significant positive correlation between interpersonal distress and negative coping styles in college students' dormitories (Han, Hu, Zhang, Du et al. 2018, 134-135). The negative coping style of college students is positively correlated with their interpersonal relationship distress and mental health status (Hu, Xu, Ding, & Li 2017, 505-508).
We propose the following Hypothesis 3: Negative coping styles mediate between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress among college students.
How do basic psychological needs affect college students' interpersonal relationships negatively? Some researchers found that if individuals' basic psychological needs cannot be met, they are less likely to adopt positive coping styles; instead, they assume more negative coping techniques (Son, Thomas & Friedmann 2013, 1011-1025.
College students with a high degree of mobile phone addiction may respond negatively to interpersonal relationships, causing interpersonal problems when their fundamental psychological needs cannot be realized. Research indicates that basic psychological needs significantly impact negative coping styles (Xia & Ye 2014, 1385-1391.
Following the above discussion, we propose Hypothesis 4: Basic psychological needs and negative coping styles mediate between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationships.

Research participants
We took a convenient sampling and chose students from three universities in Guangdong province as our participants. A total of 1,782 people took part in the survey, with 1,737 valid questionnaires submitted; the efficiency of the questionnaire is 97.47%, among them 741 males (42.7%), and 996 females (57.3%).

Research method
We used STAR to carry out Online questionnaire survey, grade 1-4 college students were randomly selected with the help of their counsellors. Using a uniform questionnaire, we asked the investigator to answer the questionnaire truthfully. The questionnaire entails basic information about an individual (grade, gender, place of origin, etc.).

Mobile Phone Addiction Scale
We utilized the mobile phone internet addiction scale (Hu, Xu, Ding, & Li 2017, 505- items. Likert's five-point scoring system was applied, and the higher the score, the more severe the addiction. In this study, the internal consistency coefficient of the scale for the data is 0.902.

Basic Psychological Needs Questionnaire
We used the basic psychological needs questionnaire (Liu, Lin, Lv, Wie et al. 2013, 791-795) compiled by Deci and Ryan and revised by Liu Junsheng et al. (2013). It entails three factors: autonomous, belonging and competence requirements, altogether 21 items. Likert's five-point scoring system was applied, and the higher the score, the higher the degree of satisfaction with basic psychological needs. The three data factors in this research are 0.727, 0.800 and 0.752. The internal consistency coefficient of the scale is 0.825.

Negative Coping Style Scale
We applied the simple coping style questionnaire compiled by Xie Yanning (1998, 114-115), which contains two factors: positive and negative coping styles, making up 20 items. The four-point scoring system was applied. The higher the score, the more negative the coping behaviors. The negative factor part of the scale was utilized in this research, and its internal consistency coefficient equaled 0.720.

Interpersonal Relationship Diagnosis Scale
We applied the interpersonal relationship diagnosis scale (Zheng 2005)  The ranking entails four factors related to disturbance: conversational behavior, communication, trouble with people and the opposite sex. We used the following scoring system: if the subject chooses 'Yes', they mark it as '1'; 'No' they mark as '0'; and then the sum. The higher the score, the more severely troubled the interpersonal relationship. If the score is 0-8, it suggests less trouble with friends; 9-14 indicates a specific degree of distress among friends; 15-28 highlights that the problem of getting along with friends is more critical; if the score is over 20, it indicates that the degree of interpersonal distress is severe, and there are more obvious psychological disorders to consider. The internal consistency coefficients of the four factors in this research are 0.842, 0.852, 0.885 and 0.865. Moreover, the internal consistency reliability coefficient of the scale is 0.893.

Data processing
We applied the statistical software SPSS27.0 and plug-ins process for data processing. When processing the data, The Harman Single Factor Test indicated that the problem of variation of standard methods in this study was not serious.

Results
The overall distribution of interpersonal relationships is presented in the table (see Table 1), which displays how many college students have serious problems with interpersonal relationships. In this research study, 1,737 college students scored between 0-28 on the interpersonal scale, with the average score being 8.37±7.122. The results indicate that the proportion of poor interpersonal relationships among college students in this survey group is 19.1%, suggesting that nearly one-fifth of college students have poor interpersonal relationships and severe interpersonal problems, including issues in interpersonal communication and friendship relationships, heterosexual interaction, etc.

The overall distribution of mobile phone addiction among college students
Given the 1,737 participants in this study, the total score of the mobile phone addiction scale is 120, which could be divided into three fractions, totalling 1,268 people whose scores are over 60, which makes up 72.9%, while there are 221 students whose scores are around 80, making it 12.8%, who could be regarded as severe mobile phone addicts.

The correlation of various dimensions between mobile phone addiction and the interpersonal relationship distress of college students
The correlation analysis displayed a significant positive correlation between mobile phone addiction and the total score of conversational and social behavior disturbance, social interaction disturbance, troubled heterosexual interaction, and interpersonal relationships (see Table 2).

Comparison of Interpersonal Relationship Distress between high and low mobile phone addicted groups
We ranked the total mobile phone addiction scores of college students based on their high and low scores, given a low score of 27% as a group of low scores (the total score ≤60) and a high score of 27% as a group of high scores (the total score≥74). Next, a t-test was performed. The results indicate that there are significant differences in the total scores of interpersonal relationship distress and interpersonal conversation issues, interpersonal friendship disturbances, troubled interaction with people, and troubled heterosexual interaction among students with varying levels of mobile phone addiction (see Table 3).

Mean, standard deviation, and correlation coefficient of each variable
We used the average mobile phone addiction score, basic psychological needs, negative coping styles and interpersonal relationship problems to perform the correlational analysis. The results indicate a negative correlation between mobile phone addiction and basic psychological needs and a positive correlation between mobile phone addiction, negative coping styles, and social behavior disturbance. In addition, basic psychological needs are negatively correlated with negative coping styles and social behavior disturbance. However, positive correlation exists between negative coping styles and social behavior disturbance (see Table 4).

Intermediary Effect Testing
We utilize the nonparametric percentile Bootstrap method suggested by Hayes to test mediating effects with specific applications of the SPSS macro program that he   We utilized the Bootstrap Method to estimate the confidence interval, repeating it 1,000 times and then calculating a confidence interval of 95%. The results indicate a significant mediating effect of fundamental psychological needs and negative coping styles between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress. They are made up of three paths, namely: Indirect effect 1: mobile phone addiction-basic psychological needs-social behavior disturbance and its confidence interval of 95%, being [0.050; 0.073]; Indirect effect 2: mobile phone addiction-negative coping styles-social behavior disturbance, and its confidence interval of 95%, being [0.029; 0.050]; Indirect effect 3: mobile phone addiction-basic psychological needs-negative coping styles-social behavior disturbances and its confidence interval of 95%, being [0.003; 0.007]. None of the three paths contains 0, implying that they are all statistically significant (see Table 6).

Intermediary Path Effect Value
Confidence Intervals of 95% Relative Mediating

The negative case of mobile phone addiction among college students
Cell phones play a critical role in Chinese college students' studies and everyday life. There are no objections to the necessary use of mobile phones, but some students' focus on the devices has gone beyond the average. Among 1,737 college students, 1,047 people have general problems with cell phones, accounting for 60%, which is a significant proportion. This is primarily because most respondents were born around 2000, grew up with cell phones, come into contact with them earlier, use them more often, and see them almost as necessity. As mobile phones grow in popularity and have more functions, the problems related to students using mobile phones will continue to increase; for instance, they get anxious without their cell phone, they get nervous without a cell phone signal, and therefore, they take their cell phones with them wherever they go. They even suffer from acousma on their cell phones. These problems affect college students' everyday life and mental health; therefore, early attention should be paid to controlling the development of mobile phone addiction within student groups. Some of the more severe cases of mobile phone addiction in the study amount to 221 participants, or 18%. These students cannot control the extent of their mobile phone usage, they are addicted to mobile phone games, mobile social networking, mobile shopping, etc. They feel anxious and lonely when they cannot use their cell phones, build their worlds in them and become unable to face their real life. Failure to intervene can lead to more serious psychological problems.

The interpersonal relationships of college students need to be improved
The results indicate that 19.1% of students had severe interpersonal relationship problems. These serious problems may be due to environmental factors. Compared conversations. Still, college students may be influenced by their previous fixed thinking and behavior patterns during their growth. Hence, they must better adapt to the university's interpersonal communication, leading to more interpersonal problems. Additionally, they must develop a higher level of autonomy and independence during college. When students feel emotional needs, they can get support through various channels, for example, parents, old friends, online, etc., and the improvement of autonomous personal offline interpersonal skills are not taken seriously. Therefore, they are likely to be troubled when they face real-life situations.

The relationship between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress among college students
The correlation analysis results highlight a significant positive correlation between the dimensions and the total score of the relationship distress and mobile phone addiction.
This indicates that mobile phone addiction is closely related to the quality of interpersonal relationships; the higher the degree of mobile phone addiction, the more difficulties college students encounter with interpersonal relationships. The T-test results display significant differences in the total score and each dimension among college students with various levels of mobile phone addiction.
The regression analysis discovered that mobile phone addiction could predict interpersonal relationship distress, confirming Hypothesis 1. Mobile phone addiction affects college students' physical and mental health; the more addicted a student is to a mobile phone, the more likely they are to have troubled relationships. The higher the degree of college students' dependence on mobile phones, the higher their dependence on mobile internet. Thus, they are more likely to become addicted to mobile social networking, entertainment, information sharing, shopping. As such, more perplexities will appear for college students in real-life interpersonal relations, embodied in aspects such as conversation, communication, dealing with people, heterosexual communication, etc.

The mediating role of basic psychological needs and negative coping styles in mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress
The results show that basic psychological needs mediate between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress, which confirms Hypothesis 2. Mobile phone addiction could predict an individual's basic psychological needs, and individual's basic psychological needs could indicate the degree of disturbance in interpersonal relationships. Our research highlights that college students are more likely to use the internet to satisfy the eight psychological desires like their power, identity, meeting challenges, interpersonal communication, escapism, autonomy, cognition and achievement. Some research indicates that the leading motive for college students to use mobile phones is the need for interpersonal communication and, secondly, entertainment (Fan 2021, 131-133). Thus, when college students become addicted to mobile phones and immerse themselves in the virtual world of the Internet, their needs for interpersonal communication, autonomy and achievement in real life fail to be satisfied. When the individual's basic psychological needs become blocked, it will weaken their need for regular communication with people. When they enter the actual society again, the lack of offline social skills will cause them to have interpersonal problems.
At the same time, the results establish that negative coping styles play a mediating role between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress. Therefore, this confirms Hypothesis 3. Mobile phone addiction can predict negative coping styles, and individuals' negative coping styles can also expect a degree of interpersonal relationship distress. When faced with novel stimuli on the Internet, college students are more willing to adopt negative coping styles like an escape. The higher the degree of mobile phone addiction among college students in real life, the more inclined they are to handle problems by applying negative coping styles. They tend to choose negative ways to deal with interpersonal relationships, expressed as withdrawal, tolerance, self-blame, fantasy, etc., leading them to be more prone to a lack of interpersonal communication, missing conversation and heterosexual interaction skills, lacking mental attitude, as well as other interpersonal problems. Negative coping styles allow college students to suppress deep negative emotions. As negative emotions accumulate to a certain extent, they can intensify potential conflicts and new ones, seriously affecting college students' studying and everyday life.
The research has also found that basic psychological needs and negative coping styles mediate between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationships among college students, confirming Hypothesis 4. When an individual's basic psychological needs cannot be met, they will develop a strong desire to meet those needs. Moreover, once basic psychological needs are not satisfied for long, the individual will turn his attention to something else (Zhang, Zeng, Ye, Hu, & Li 2012, 83-90). For instance, if college students have a high degree of mobile phone addiction, like being addicted to the mobile phone and the internet world, then their basic psychological needs for interpersonal communication cannot be met at this time, they will choose more negative coping styles to deal with interpersonal problems, leading them to interpersonal issues.
This study considered the relationship between mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationship distress among college students. Furthermore, it explored the mediating role of basic psychological needs and negative coping styles. The results indicate that not only can cell phone addiction predict interpersonal relationship distress, but it can also indirectly influence interpersonal relationships utilizing the single mediation role of basic psychological needs and negative coping styles, establishing a chain role of mediation between the two, further explaining the mechanism behind the influence of mobile phone addiction on college students' interpersonal relationships. The results of this research complement previous studies and supports further research on intervention in college students' mobile phone addiction and interpersonal relationships.

Conclusions
Given with the results reported above, we have come to the following conclusions: First of all, the mobile phone addiction of college students can significantly predict the interpersonal relationship distress of college students, because every college student has their own basic psychological needs among which interpersonal relationship is of great importance in their college life. And our research found that the basic psychological needs are the mediating variables between mobile phone addiction and the interpersonal relationships of college students.
Secondly, college students usually use the negative coping styles to deal with the cell phone addiction, which make their mental problems more serious. Our research found that the negative coping styles are the mediator between mobile phone addiction and the interpersonal relationships of college students, and so the basic psychological needs and negative coping styles establish a mediating chain effect between mobile phone addiction and the interpersonal relationships distress of college students. Later on, we should make some targeted intervention research to reduce their mobile phone addiction, so as to change their coping styles positively.