Abstract

Smartphone overuse during adolescence, where physical and psychological development occurs rapidly, can cause functional problems in various areas, including mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and poor academic performance. Although previous studies have suggested that depression and urgency could each predict smartphone overuse, only a few studies have examined how they may conjointly influence smartphone use. This study aims to examine the mediating effect of urgency in the relationship between depression and smartphone overuse in a large sample of adolescents. Participants were 896 elementary students (391 males, 505 females) and 538 middle school students (228 males, 310 females) who completed a set of online self-report questionnaires measuring depression, urgency, and smartphone use. The results of path analysis indicated that urgency significantly and partially mediated the relationship between depression and smartphone overuse. The findings suggest that urgency may be an underlying mechanism by which depression may contribute to smartphone overuse in adolescents, and highlights depression and urgency as potential targets for Intervention of smartphone overuse.