The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Experiential Avoidance, Social Isolation, and Smartphone Addiction in Adolescents
Subject Areas : social psychology
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Keywords: Smartphone addiction, experiential avoidance, social isolation, emotion regulation, adolescents,
Abstract :
Abstract
In the current digital age, mobile phones have become one of the primary tools for communication and entertainment, to the extent that excessive use of them has turned into a serious challenge for adolescents. Mobile phone addiction and social isolation are two phenomena that are increasingly observed among this age group and can have significant negative impacts on their mental health and quality of life. Experiential avoidance, as a coping strategy, can play an important role in this process. Adolescents who avoid situations and emotions due to negative feelings and unpleasant experiences may resort to excessive use of mobile phones to escape facing these emotions. This avoidance can lead to increased social isolation and ultimately to mobile phone addiction. Therefore, The present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between experiential avoidance, social isolation, and smartphone addiction among adolescents. The research method was descriptive and utilized structural equation modeling. The statistical population of the study included all adolescents in District 4 of Tehran, from which 200 individuals were selected as the sample using a convenience sampling method. Participants responded to the smartphone addiction questionnaire (Owen et al., 2013), the emotion regulation questionnaire (Gross and colleagues, 2001), the California Social Isolation Questionnaire, and the experiential avoidance questionnaire (Gámez et al., 2011). Data were analyzed using SPSS-26 and AMOS-24 software. The results indicated that there is a significant correlation between smartphone addiction and social isolation, emotion regulation, and experiential avoidance. Furthermore, the examination of indirect relationships showed that the proposed model of the study had a good fit, and emotion regulation played a mediating role in the relationship between experiential avoidance and social isolation, as well as smartphone addiction. These findings highlight the importance of emotion regulation as a key factor in understanding and managing smartphone addiction and social isolation among adolescents. In particular, it suggests that enhancing emotion regulation skills can help reduce experiential avoidance and, consequently, decrease social isolation and smartphone addiction.
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