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Dependence and Mental Health among 

Adolescents: The Mediating Role of 

Academic Burnout and the Moderating 

Role of Coping Styles

Anming He,
1
 Jiaojiao Wan,

2
 Qiuping Hui

1
 

 

1. School of Education Science, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 

464000, Henan, China 

2. School of Education Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, 

China 

 

Abstract: To investigate the relationships between adolescent mental 

health and mobile phone dependence (MPD), academic burnout, and 
coping styles as well as the underlying mechanisms, this study surveyed 

1191 adolescents, using the mobile phone dependence indicator scale, 
adolescent academic burnout questionnaire, simplified coping style 

questionnaire, and SCI-90 self-report mental symptom inventory. The 

analysis results by structural equation modeling techniques are that: (i) 

MPD is a significant negative predictor of adolescent mental health; (ii) 

Academic burnout partially mediates the relationship between MPD and 

adolescent mental health; (iii) Negative coping styles moderate the 
second half of the mediating path; the mediating effect was more 

significant among adolescents with higher levels of negative coping than 
those with lower levels of negative coping. The findings of this study 

offer implications for the protection and promotion of adolescent mental 

health in the mobile internet era. 

Best Evidence in Chinese Education 2022; 12(1):1581-1587. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.22.ab008 

How to Cite: He, A., Wan, J., & Hui, Q. (2022). The relationship between mobile 

phone dependence and mental health among adolescents: The mediating role of 

academic burnout and the moderating role of coping styles. Best Evidence in 

Chinese Education, 12(1):1581-1587. 



He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No.1, 2022 1582 

Keywords: Mobile Phone Dependence, Academic Burnout, Coping Style, Mental Health, Adolescents 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Correspondence to: Jiaojiao Wan, School of Education Science, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, Henan, China. 
E-mail: 1060581865@qq.com 

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2022 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the 

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License 

(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of 

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He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1583 

Introduction 

Mobile phone dependence (MPD), also referred to as cellular phone addition and the 

problematic mobile phone use, is the individuals’ overindulgence in mobile phone-

related activities which causes strong, persistent cravings for the use of them and con-

sequently, significant impairment in users’ social and psychological functions. The 

lowered level of mental health is one of the most salient negative ramifications brought 

by mobile phones to adolescents. The MPD-induced reclusiveness hinders the fulfilling 

of human needs for interpersonal communication, belonging, and self-actualization, 

which leads to detrimental emotions of adolescents such as senses of inferiority and 

loneliness. 

Academic burnout is a prolonged, negative state of mind related to students’ 

learning, represented by emotional exhaustion, academic apathy, and reduced sense of 

achievement. Previous studies also found that intense mobile phone users are more like-

ly to be distracted, a mental status unfavorable to learning, and that students with high 

levels of MPD are more prone to academic procrastination and weariness. Hence, we 

posit that MPD can positively predict adolescent academic burnout. 

In addition, academic burnout may be harmful to adolescent mental health. Ac-

ademic burnout is a form of consumption and loss of mental resources in learning, and 

the lack of resources can lead to difficulties of adaptation. Teenager mental health is a 

typical issue of adaptation in adolescence. Therefore, the more severe the academic 

burnout, the lower the level of mental health of the teenager. We hypothesize that aca-

demic burnout may play a mediating role in the relationship between MPD and teenager 

mental health. 

According to diathesis - stress theories, individuals’ coping styles pose im-

portant influences on their mental health. Scholars discovered that in contexts of risks, 

protective coping responses could buffer the negative impact on mental health, while 

disengagement coping could intensify the negative influence on mental health. Thus, it 

is very likely that coping styles can moderate the effect of risk factors on adolescent 

mental health. Hence, a hypothesis is proposed that coping styles moderate the direct 

effect of MPD on adolescent mental health and the second half of the path of the indi-

rect influence of MPD on teenager mental health mediated by academic burnout. 

To sum up, based on relevant theories and existing empirical findings, the pre-

sent study established a moderated mediation model to examine the effects of MPD, 

academic burnout, and coping responses on adolescent mental health. Data of the big 

sample of 1191 adolescents were employed to investigate the mediating and moderating 

mechanisms of the influence of MPD on teenager mental health, the mediating role of 

academic burnout, and the moderating role of coping styles in the chain of mediation, in 

an effort to provide evidence-based theoretical guidelines for the prevention of and in-

tervention in adolescent mental problems in the mobile phone era. 

Research Methods 

Subjects 



He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1584 

The survey was conducted on the cohort of 11- to 25-year-olds. Cluster random sam-

pling was adopted to select entire classes of students from 8 colleges in Heilongjiang, 

Tianjin, Shandong, Henan, and Jiangxi Provinces on the principle of equivalence of 

liberal arts, sciences, and arts. Junior secondary students from two middle schools and 

senior secondary students from two high schools in Henan Province were also recruited 

in classes based on the social-natural sciences equivalence and grade balance. A total of 

1300 teenagers participated in the questionnaire survey, and 1191 valid questionnaires 

(91.62% validity rate) were obtained with 602 ones from boys (50.5%) and 589 ones 

from girls (49.5%).  

Research Tools 

 The Mobile Phone Dependence Indicator Scale. It includes four dimensions: 

losing control, anxiety/craving, withdrawal/escape, and productivity loss, with 

a Cronbach’s a coefficient of 0.88 in this study. 

 The Self-report Mental Symptom Scale. It encompasses ten categories of 

symptoms such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive, over-sensitivity, de-

pression, anxiety, hostility, phobia, paranoid, psychotic disorder, and others, 

with a Cronbach’s a coefficient of 0.88 in this study. The higher the scores one 

obtained from this scale, the worse their mental state was. 

 The Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire. This is a questionnaire adapted to 

the demographic characteristics of China, with Cronbach’s a coefficient of 

0.814 for the entire scale, 0.84 for the positive coping style (i.e. engagement 

coping) scale, and 0.74 for the negative coping style (i.e. disengagement coping) 

scale in this study. 

 The Adolescent Academic Burnout Questionnaire. It includes three dimensions: 

physical and mental exhaustion, cynicism, and low self-efficacy, with a 

Cronbach’s a coefficient of 0.73 in this study. 

Data Processing 

Data were evaluated by the common method bias test, descriptive statistical analysis, 

and other relevant analyses via software SPAA 2.0, and the structural equation model-

based analysis was utilized to test the validity of the moderated mediation model 

through software Amos 23.0. 

Research Results 

The Common Method Bias Test 

The common method bias test results showed that there were 13 factors with character-

istic roots above 1, and that the first factor could explain 25.31% of the total variation, 

less than the 40% critical value, indicating there was not a significant common method 

bias. 



He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1585 

Relations between Adolescent MPD, Academic Burnout, 

Coping Styles, and Mental Health 

MPD were significantly and positively correlated with adolescent academic burnout, 

disengagement coping, and scores in mental health, but not related with engagement 

coping. Scores in mental health were positively correlated with academic burnout, dis-

engagement coping, but negatively related to engagement coping. Academic burnout 

was negatively correlated with engagement coping, while positively related to disen-

gagement coping. 

The Test of the Moderated Mediating Effect with Dis-

engagement Coping as the Moderator Variable 

The test results of the moderated mediation model by structural equation modeling 

techniques showed that disengagement coping significantly moderated the relationship 

between adolescent academic burnout and mental health (β = 0.07, p < 0.001), but had 

no moderating effect on the relationship between MPD and adolescent mental health (β 

= 0.03, p > 0.05). For teenagers with high levels of disengagement coping, their scores 

from the mental health scale considerably increased with exacerbated academic burnout 

(β= 0.48, t= 10.82, p< 0.001); it was also true among teenagers with low levels of dis-

engagement coping, but the speed of increase significantly slowed down (β= 0.27, t= 

5.99, p< 0.001; β=0.48 was decreased to β=0.27). 

The Test of the Moderated Mediating Effect with En-

gagement Coping as the Moderator Variable 

Engagement coping did not show prominent moderating effects on the relationships 

between MPD, academic burnout, and mental health (β= -0.03, 0.00, p> 0.05 both). 

That means engagement coping did not moderate the influence of MPD on adolescent 

mental health. 

Discussion 

The Mediating Role of Academic Burnout 

This study discovered that MPD could positively predict academic burnout, which is 

consistent with the findings of previous research on academic burnout. At the same time, 

it was found that academic burnout could significantly predict teenager mental health, 

which supports resource conservation theories that contend one’s adaptiveness is close-

ly related to their possession of resources. More importantly, it was confirmed that aca-

demic burnout partially mediated the relationship between MPD and adolescent mental 

health; MPD could not only directly influence adolescent mental health, but also indi-

rectly affect it via academic burnout. The introduction of the variable of academic 



He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1586 

burnout helps explain the pathway through which addictive behaviors like MPD affect 

adolescent mental health. 

The Moderating Role of Coping Styles 

The moderated mediation model in this study was used to examine the moderating ef-

fects of coping styles on the mediation chain of “MPD→ academic burnout→ mental 

health”. It was found that disengagement coping had significant moderating effects on 

this mediation chain and that it can moderate the second half of the path of the influence 

of MPD on adolescent mental health through the mediation of academic burnout. Aca-

demic burnout can more effectively predict the mental health of adolescents with higher 

levels of disengagement coping than that of those with lower levels of disengagement 

coping. In other words, high levels of disengagement coping, can considerably aggra-

vate the negative impact of academic burnout on adolescent mental health. It implies 

that teenagers with higher levels of academic burnout and disengagement coping are of 

high risk of mental problems. As opposed to the initial hypothesis, engagement coping 

did not exhibit any moderating effects. 

There is an interactive relationship between academic burnout and coping 

styles. Academic burnout imposes a particularly strong influence on mental health and 

social adaptation of adolescents with higher levels of disengagement coping. Lower 

levels of disengagement coping have a more significant protective effect on teenagers 

with academic burnout. Although young mobile phone addicts are more prone to aca-

demic burnout, early intervention in childhood can effectively reduce the possibility of 

MPD and academic burnout. Moreover, coping skills of adolescents are somewhat mal-

leable through intervention programs like group counseling. Teenagers are at a key 

phase of education. Compared with MPD, problems in education should be more seri-

ous risk factors; academic burnout can negatively affect any individual suffering from 

this problem, no matter how seldom they use disengagement coping strategies. 

Conclusions 

(i) Adolescent mental health is closely related to MPD, academic burnout, and coping 

styles. (ii) Both MPD and academic burnout can predict teenager mental health. In addi-

tion to its direct effect on teenager mental health, MPD can indirectly affect it through 

the mediation of academic burnout. (iii) The indirect effect of MPD on adolescent men-

tal health via the mediation of academic burnout is significantly moderated by negative 

coping styles. The indirect effect of MPD is more prominent among adolescents with 

higher levels of disengagement coping than their peers with lower levels of disengage-

ment coping. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 



He et al. (Henan). Mobile Phone Dependence and Mental Health among Adolescents. 

BECE, Vol.12, No. 1, 2022 1587 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Psychological Development and Educa-

tion,2022, 38(3):391-398. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE 

by the author(s) and the Chinese journal. 

 

何安明, 万娇娇, 惠秋平. 手机依赖与青少年心理健康的关系:学业倦怠的中介作用和应对方

式的调节作用. 心理发展与教育, 2022, 38(3):391-398. 

 

 

Received: 30 July 2022 

Revised: 11 August 2022 

Accepted: 27 August 2022 

 

 

 

 

 


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