The Influence of Loneliness on The Mobile Phone Addiction of Contemporary College Students: The Mediating Role of Online Social Support

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of loneliness on the mobile phone addiction, and to investigate the role of the psychological variable of online social support. Methods: 622 college students were surveyed by using the mobile phone addiction index (MPAI) scale, Online Social Support Questionnaire for College Students and the short-form of the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Results: The main effect of online social support and the mobile phone addiction on education level was significant. Loneliness was negatively correlated with online social support and the mobile phone addiction, online social support is positively correlated with the mobile phone addiction. Online social support was a complete mediator between loneliness and the mobile phone addiction.


Introduction
With the progress of society, the way people communicate with each other is becoming more and more convenient and efficient. But modern people, immersed in the cocoon of information, seem even lonelier. We see people on the subway sitting opposite each other with their cell phones without saying a word. This is a profound reflection of the mobile phone addiction and a different kind of loneliness in modern living environment. Loneliness is an unpleasant psychological state caused by the unsatisfied desire for emotional relationship and interpersonal relationship due to being alienated or rejected by others. Loneliness is associated with many factors. From the perspective of social environment, loneliness is negatively correlated with the perception of social support and parent-child relationship (Chen, 2008;Zhang, 2011). From the perspective of the individual, individuals with personality defects such as neuroticism and depression are more likely to feel lonely, Individuals' less positive cognition or coping with loneliness will also have a greater impact on loneliness. For example, if you take a negative way of avoiding loneliness, you will feel lonely more easily (Liu, 2008); In addition, there is a significant positive correlation between loneliness and withdrawal symptoms, mood changes and other factors.
Mobile phone dependence refers to the phenomenon of excessive addiction to electronic information media, such as mobile phones, which produces strong and continuous craving and dependence in use, and may affect the normal social interaction and mental health of individuals. Mobile phone dependence is based on behavioral addiction, which manifests in abuse, withdrawal, and affects normal work, study, and social interaction. Some scholars have conducted research and found that Loneliness is positively correlated with mobile phone dependence. The main reason is that the use of mobile phones can relieve Loneliness and stress (Liu & Wang, 2012 Online social support refers to individuals searching and exchanging information through the Internet to gain the understanding, respect and support of others. It has greatly improved the shortcomings of real social support that is easily restricted by time and space, and is concealed and extensive, the information is more diverse. When the social support received in reality is high, the social support received in the network will also increase (Jing & Li, 2012;. Online social support can be divided into four dimensions from the perspective of content (Liang & Wei, 2008). Information support refers to the promotion of problem solving by giving information (Leavy, 1983); Emotional support refers to support that gives encouragement, warmth, intimacy or a sense of belonging, including care, trust, and empathy (Tolsdorf, 1976;Leavy, 1983); Companion support refers to individuals engaged in certain activities with others, through this social process to meet needs, reduce stress, and promote development (Cohen & Wills, 1985); Instrumental support refers to the provision of services or materials to help others solve practical problems (Jacobson, 1986).
When loneliness is high, mobile phone addiction will increase, but social support will also decrease, and the influence of loneliness on mobile phone addiction will be partially regulated by the social support obtained on the Internet (Jiang, 2014). Studies have shown that when mobile phone addiction is high, online social support will increase, but real social support will decrease accordingly (Ling, 2010;Wang, 2011;Wei, 2012). Alienation, as a variable with a larger scope than loneliness, is also affected by social support obtained on the Internet, individuals with high online social support can be relatively less affected by alienation (Jiang & Bai, 2014).

Research Object
The method of convenience sampling combined with online sampling is adopted in this study, The online questionnaire was filled out by college students from Shanxi, Hebei, Jilin and other places. A total of 680 questionnaires were sent out and 623 were effectively received, with an effective rate of 91.62%. There were 248 males and 375 females, with a mean age of 21.5 years. instrumental support, information support and social member support. Score at four points, the total score is used to judge the level of online social support. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire is good. In the research of Chinese scholar Liang Xiaoyan, Cronbach's a coefficient is 0.926, and the various dimensions and overall correlation of the questionnaire are 0.429-0.698 (P<0.01).

ULS-6 Loneliness Scale
The scale was compiled by Hays and DiMatteo in 1987. There are 6 "Loneliness" positive-order items in total, using a four-point scoring method. The scoring method is 1 for never, 2 for rarely, 3 for sometimes, 4 means always. The total score of the scale is 8~32. The higher the individual's Loneliness, the higher the total score. In the study of Chinese scholar Li Zhi, Cronbach's a coefficient is 0.831, and the correlation coefficient between the total score of the ULS-6 scale and the single item "I feel lonely" is 0.715.

Data Processing
The data were analyzed using SPSS23.0, SPSSAU, and Process plug-ins.  The independent variable of descriptive statistical analysis was gender, and Mobile phone dependence, Internet social support, and Loneliness were dependent variables. One-way analysis of variance was performed. The results are shown in the chart, the gender effects of Mobile phone dependence, Online social support, and Loneliness are different. Through the main-effect variance analysis of mobile phone dependence, online social support, Loneliness and gender, it is found that only online social support has gender significance (F=5.60, p[0.05), so the online social support of men is significantly higher than that of women stand by. With the increase of Loneliness, both online social support and mobile phone dependence will decrease, and online social support and mobile phone dependence are positively correlated (p<0.05). When we have more online social support, we feel less lonely; the more we rely on mobile phones, the less lonely we feel; however, the more online social support we have, the more we rely on mobile phones.

Correlation Analysis Results
strengthen. That is, the stronger an individual's dependence on mobile phones, the higher his degree of social support on the Internet, and the less Loneliness he can experience.

The Mediating Role of Online Social Support between Loneliness and Mobile Phone Addiction
On the basis of the correlation analysis of the three, use SPSS Process 2.16 model 4 to analyzed the mediating effect of the mediating variable of online social support in the influence of loneliness (independent variable) on mobile phone addiction (dependent variable).   Figure 1.

Figure 1. Intermediary Model Diagram of Network Social Support
In this paper, the 95% confidence interval calculated by Bootstrap for 5000 repeated sampling is represented by the mediating effect a*b (-1.95) and its 95% BootCI (-0.67~-0.53), if 0 is not included in this interval, the mediating effect of online social support is significant and a and b are significant, and c' is not significant, and the online social support is completely mediating, and the effect is 100%.