Health anxiety related to problematic smartphone use and gaming disorder severity during COVID-19: Fear of missing out as a mediator
Elhai JD, McKay D, Yang H, Minaya C, Montag C, Asmundson GJG
Human behavior and emerging technologies · 62 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Cross-sectional study (classified by our AI screen)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Funding not disclosed
Publication
- Published
- 2020-11-23 · Hum Behav Emerg Technol · vol. 3 · issue 1 · pp. 137–146
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Cited
- 116 citations · more than 99% of similar papers · 22.4× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 74 works
- Access
- Free to read
- Research areas
- Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Digital Mental Health Interventions · COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Keywords
- health anxiety, fear of missing out, smartphone addiction, gaming disorder, COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, problematic internet use, mediation, unmet social needs
6 authors
From CN, US, DE, CA
- Jon D. ElhaiTianjin Normal University; University of Toledo
- Dean McKayFordham University
- Haibo Yang · correspondingTianjin Normal University
- Charlene MinayaFordham University
- Christian MontagUniversity of Electronic Science and Technology of China; Universität Ulm
- Gordon J. G. AsmundsonUniversity of Regina
Abstract
Health anxiety has been linked with fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19. Higher levels of health anxiety likely increased social distancing and self-isolating during the pandemic. We investigated relations among health anxiety, fear of missing out (FOMO) on rewarding social experiences from social distancing, and consequential levels of problematic smartphone use (PSU) and gaming disorder (GD). We surveyed a broad sample of 812 U.S. and Canadian participants during the pandemic, in late-May 2020, using the Short Health Anxiety Inventory, FOMO Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version, and GD test. Significant bivariate relationships were found among health anxiety, FOMO, PSU, and GD severity. Using structural equation modeling, FOMO mediated relations between health anxiety and both PSU and GD severity. We discuss FOMO as an important variable explaining problematic digital technology use to compensate for unmet social needs from social distancing. We discuss these findings within the context of the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution theoretical model of problematic internet use. Results offer novel insight into the role of health anxiety on FOMO from unmet social needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and consequential problematic internet use.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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