Perceived subjective social status and smartphone addiction tendency among Chinese adolescents: A sequential mediation model

Given the prevalence and negative consequences of smartphone addiction among adolescents, it is important to understand its mechanism. Based on relative deprivation theory and compensatory satisfaction theory, the present study aimed to explore the association between subjective social status and smartphone addiction tendency, as well as the mediating effects of relative deprivation and online basic psychological need satisfaction. A sample of 1363 high school students (mean age = 16.11 years, SD = 0.98) from Hubei Province of China participated in this study. After controlling for age and gender, direct effect showed that subjective social status negatively predicted smartphone addiction tendency; indirect effects showed that subjective social status predicted smartphone addiction tendency negatively through the mediating effect of relative deprivation and through the sequential mediating effect of relative deprivation and online basic psychological need satisfaction; indirect effects also showed that subjective social status predicted smartphone addiction tendency positively through the suppressing effect of online basic psychological need satisfaction. These findings suggest that both high and low level of subjective social status would lead to the increase of smartphone addiction tendency. The present study suggests that reducing the levels of relative deprivation and online basic psychological needs satisfaction may be important in prevention and intervention for smartphone addiction.