Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2022-10
Examining the Empirical Links Between Digital Social Pressure,Personality,Psychological Distress,Social Support,Users’ Residential Living Conditions,and Smartphone Addiction
Based on the recent scientific literature on the social ecology of smartphone addiction, we have examined the empirical relationship between social digital pressure (SDP) and smartphone addiction by also looking at the influence of users’ personalities, psychological distress, social support, and residential social living conditions on this addiction. The analyses were carried out on a nationally representative sample of 2,820 Spanish smartphone users. The results of the causal and multigroup models (structural equation model) indicated that the SDP was positively related to smartphone addiction. This influence was also independent of the effects on smartphone addiction of some personality traits (mainly low conscientiousness), high depression, low social support, and high social disorder in the neighborhood. SDP also showed an important mediating effect mainly for social factors (social support and social disorder in the neighborhood). SDP may be a relevant variable for understanding the potential risk of smartphone addiction in cases where there is a high need for social connection.
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