Structural Relationship among Mobile Phone Dependence, Self-Efficacy, Time Management Disposition, and Academic Procrastination in College Students

The relationship between mobile phone dependence and academic burnout in Chinese college students: a moderated mediator model

Objective

The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between the level of mobile phone dependence among college students and their experience of academic burnout. Additionally, the study sought to explore the potential mediating effect of study engagement and the moderating role of love.

Methods

During October and December 2023, a cross-sectional study measuring mobile phone dependence, academic burnout, and study engagement among Chinese college students, using the UtrechtWork Engagement Scale-student (UWES-S), College Student Mobile Phone Dependence Questionnaire (CSMPDQ), and Academic Burnout Questionnaire (ABQ). To examine the hypothesis of mediating and moderating effect, SPSS PROCESS was utilized.

Results

The predictive effect of mobile phone dependence on academic burnout was significant (β = 0.410, t = 14.236, p < 0.001), and the predictive effect of mobile phone dependence on academic burnout remained significant when the mediating variable study engagement was introduced (β = 0.308, t = 10.288, p < 0.001), mobile phone dependence had a significant predictive effect on study engagement (β = -0.292, t = -11.639, p < 0.001), and study engagement had a significant positive predictive effect on academic burnout (β = -0.270, t = -9.028, p < 0.001). Love significantly negatively predicted study engagement (β = -0.564, t = -9.641, p < 0.001); and the interaction term for mobile phone dependence and love was significant (β = -0.211, t = -3.688, p < 0.001), indicating a significant moderating effect of love between mobile phone dependence and study engagement.

Conclusion

Mobile phones among college students has been found to have a direct correlation with academic burnout. It can also indirectly contribute to academic burnout by diminishing levels of academic engagement. This indirect relationship is further influenced by love. These findings can help researchers and educators better understand the underlying mechanisms between smartphone dependence and learning burnout in undergraduates.

The prospective associations among time management tendency, negative emotions, and problematic smartphone use in Chinese nursing students: enlightenment from COVID-19

Purpose

The regularity of epidemic prevention and control measures in China has meant that nursing students have been exposed to more electronic devices, while problematic smartphone use has increased. The purpose of this study is to determine the prospective associations among time management tendency, negative emotions, and problematic smartphone use in nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A longitudinal study was conducted between November 2021 and May 2022. A total of 989 nursing students participated. The convenience sampling method was adopted and the following tools were used: the Adolescence Time Management Disposition Scale, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - 21, and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index. Multiple parallel mediation models were used by Mplus.

Results

Time management tendency had a significantly negative effect on problematic smartphone use (p < 0.05). Further tests using mediation models showed that stress as a negative emotion mediated the relationship between time management tendency and problematic smartphone use (p < 0.05) over time.

Conclusion

Nursing educators need to strengthen the stress resistance and time management ability of nursing students.

Problematic mobile phone use and time management disposition in Chinese college students: the chain mediating role of sleep quality and cognitive flexibility

BACKGROUND

With the widespread adoption of smartphones, there has been a notable increase in problematic mobile phone use (PMPU), particularly prevalent among college students. Research suggests that apart from being associated with various problematic behaviors, this excessive mobile phone use might also have an impact on individual personality traits, such as time management disposition (TMD), which plays a significant role in individual motivation and psychological well-being. While previous literature has identified a negative relationship between PMPU and TMD, few studies have delved into the underlying mediating mechanism. Thus, the main aim of this study was to examine the chain mediating effect of sleep quality and cognitive flexibility on the relationship between PMPU and TMD.

METHODS

A total of 921 Chinese college students completed the questionnaire. We collected basic information about the participants and assessed their PMPU, TMD, sleep quality, and cognitive flexibility using the Problematic Mobile Phone Use Scale-10, Adolescence Time Management Disposition Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scale and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory.

RESULTS

The results indicated a significant correlation among all the variables. Moreover, we noted that both sleep quality and cognitive flexibility fully mediated the association between PMPU and TMD. Additionally, a chain mediating effect involving sleep quality and flexibility in this relationship was also identified.

CONCLUSION

We found that sleep quality and cognitive flexibility had a series of multiple mediating effects in the pathway from PMPU to TMD, and both significantly mediated TMD. These findings indicated that impaired cognitive function and sleep quality may contribute to time management difficulties resulting from PMPU, suggesting that problematic behaviors like PMPU can impact one's personality traits. Therefore, interventions should be enhanced to mitigate the adverse effects of PMPU.

Emotional involvement matters, too: Associations among parental involvement, time management and academic engagement vary with Youth's developmental phase

BACKGROUND

Prior studies have emphasized the importance of parents' educational involvement (a type of cognitive involvement) to academic engagement, although little is known about emotional involvement.

AIMS

This study investigated whether and how different facets of involvement (cognitive vs. emotional, paternal vs. maternal) are differentially related to academic engagement and whether and how the associations among parental involvement, time management and academic engagement vary by adolescents' developmental phases.

SAMPLES

The participants of this large national survey were students in elementary, middle and high school across different regions of mainland China. A total of 2687 adolescents (52.7% females, Mage  = 14.07 ± 2.47) participated in this study.

METHODS

Structural equation models and multigroup analysis were conducted.

RESULTS

We found that the total effect of paternal and maternal emotional involvement on academic engagement was positive in elementary-, middle- and high school students, and an indirect effect of time management underlying the above paths was found in all three groups. In contrast, the positive effect of maternal cognitive involvement on academic engagement as well as the indirect effects underlying the above pathways was established only in high school students.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the necessity of parents' emotional involvement and the consideration of adolescent developmental characteristics in the design of interventions.

Postgraduates' time management disposition and mental health: mediating role of life satisfaction and moderating role of core self-evaluations

BACKGROUND

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between postgraduates' time management disposition and mental health. As such, it constructed a moderated mediation model to examine the mediating role of life satisfaction on the relationship between graduate students' time management disposition and mental health and examine whether this role was moderated by core self-evaluations.

METHODS

455 postgraduates were surveyed by the Adolescence Time Management Disposition Inventory, the Adolescent Students' Life Satisfaction Scale, the revised version of the Chinese Core Self-Evaluation Scale, and the revised version of the Chinese General Health Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Time management disposition, life satisfaction, core self-evaluation, and mental health were significantly correlated. Time management disposition indirectly affected mental health through the mediating effect of life satisfaction. Core self-evaluation moderated the second half of the mediating effect of time management disposition on mental health via life satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

The findings reveal the mechanism between time management disposition and mental health, which will help school educators to guide postgraduates in developing good time management disposition and improving life satisfaction and core self-evaluation, and thus improve their mental health.

Time Management Disposition Mediates the Influence of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment on Undergraduates' Procrastination

Objective

The present study explores the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and procrastination among college students and the mediating effect of time management disposition.

Materials and Methods

The present study surveyed 682 college students from two universities with the Children’s Psychological Maltreatment Scale, Aitken Procrastination Questionnaire, and Adolescence Time Management Disposition Scale.

Results

There are significant positive correlations between childhood psychological maltreatment and undergraduates’ procrastination (r = 0.197, p < 0.01), namely, individuals with more severe childhood psychological maltreatment are more likely to procrastinate. Time management disposition negatively correlates with childhood psychological maltreatment (r = −0.136, p < 0.01) and procrastination (r = −0.573, p < 0.01). The mediating roles of the time management disposition in the association between childhood psychological maltreatment and undergraduates’ procrastination are significant.

Conclusion

Time management disposition plays a mediating role in the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and college students’ procrastination behavior.