The Relationship Between Sedentary Behaviors, Mobile Phone Addiction, Procrastination, Andmental Healthamong College Students:a Moderated Mediation Analysis

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explore the association between sedentary behaviors, mobile phone addiction, procrastination, and mental health among college students and if mobile phone addiction and procrastination are mediators between sedentary behaviors and mental health. METHODS: This cross-sectional study collected data from the universities in Shanghai through convenient sampling and snowball sampling. A total of 1045 college students aged 16 to 22 (18.71 ± 0.84) were included in this study, and 66.41% of participants were female. The Behaviors of college students were surveyed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form(IPAQ-SF), and Mobile Phone Addiction Lindex(MPAI), Aitken Procrastination Inventory(API), and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale(DASS-C21). The relationships between pairs of variables were assessed by means of Pearson’s r coefficient, and the mediation tests for the relationship between the variables were performed by means of Hayes' PROCESS algorithm with bootstrapping. RESULTS: (1) The sedentary behaviors, mobile phone addiction, procrastination and mental health of college students were positively associated between the two variables(r = 0.08-0.44, P < 0.01); (2) The sedentary behaviors were significantly positive predictors mobile phone addiction(β = 0.34,P < 0.001), and mobile phone addiction (β = 0.31,P < 0.001), and procrastination (β = 0.19,P < 0.001)were significantly positive predictors of mental health;(3)The sedentary behaviors affect mental health through the independent mediating effect of mobile phone addiction(bootSE = 0.11, 95% CI = [0.04,0.18]), the independent mediating effect of procrastination(bootSE = 0.02, 95% CI = [0.00,0.04])and the chain mediating effect of mobile phone addiction and procrastination(bootSE = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.00,0.02]). CONCLUSIONS: Sedentary behavior can affect mental health through phone addiction and procrastination in college students. These findings suggest that intervention efforts should focus on the reduction mobile phone addiction and procrastination behaviors to reduce the incidence of mental health problems of sedentary college students.