Young adults are a high-risk population for developing smartphone addiction (SA), which bring about social issues. One theoretically and empirically supported proximal risk factor of SA is preference for smartphone-based internet applications (PSIA). However, most previous studies ignore gender difference and symptomatic heterogeneity of SA. Besides, many previous data analyses contain non-addicts, and the results derived might not be applicable to smartphone addicts. To bridging the gap, we used a symptom-level network analysis to assess gender differences in the links between preferences for 8 smartphone-based internet applications and 4 SA symptoms among young adults with high-level phone addiction (619 women and 415 men). The results showed that: (1) The relationship between the preference for video and the “loss of control” symptom was more pronounced in female addicts compared to their male counterparts. (2) Shopping app had stronger bridge centrality in women’s smartphone applications-SA network, which was positively linked with more SA symptoms. (3) Our research identified marginal gender differences in smartphone addicts' psychological networks, with female addicts showing stronger links between social media/eBook preferences and withdrawal symptoms, and male addicts displaying a stronger connection between gaming/eBook and other smartphone activities. The study provides a visualized network association and network metrics for understanding the relationship between PSIA and SA. We propose adopting a selective processing hypothesis and an evolutionary psychology perspective to aid in understanding these gender differences.
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