Poor Sleep Quality, Mobile Phone Addiction, and Depressive Symptoms Among College Students: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Behav Sleep Med. 2025 Oct 21:1-13. doi: 10.1080/15402002.2025.2569375. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: This study employed a multilevel autoregressive mediation model to clarify the longitudinal role of poor sleep quality in the association between mobile-phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students.

METHODS: 3,662 freshmen (976 Male/2,686 Female) from two Anhui colleges were assessed at T₁ (November 2019, N = 4,211), T₂ (May 2020, N = 4,193) and T₃ (November 2020, N = 3,662) for sleep quality, mobile-phone addiction and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: Correlation analysis revealed significant associations between smartphone addiction (β = 0.493, 0.391, p <0.001), sleep problems (β = 0.336, 0.318, p <0.001), and depressive symptoms (β = 0.488, 0.431, p <0.001) across T1, T2 and T3 . Positive associations were observed between smartphone addiction and both sleep problems and depressive symptoms (β = 0.343, 0.329 at T1; β = 0.381, 0.402 at T2; β = 0.315, 0.261 at T3; all p < 0.001). A simple mediation model revealed that poor sleep quality partially mediated the association between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among college students (indirect effect β = 0.0505, p < 0.001; total effect β = 0.237, p < 0.001). The multilevel autoregressive mediation model further confirmed that poor sleep quality partially mediated this association (indirect effect β = 0.002, p < 0.05; total effect β = 0.047, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION: This study underscores poor sleep quality as a critical mediating factor in the long-term relationship between mobile phone addiction and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students.

PMID:41117116 | DOI:10.1080/15402002.2025.2569375