The role of stress and motivation in problematic smartphone use among college students

• Significant interaction effect between stress and escapism on negative outcome.
• Significant interaction effect between stress and entertainment on negative outcome.
• Stress increased the association between escapism and negative outcome.
• Stress increased the association between entertainment and negative outcome.
• Differences in results between individuals who score high/low on negative outcome.

Although numerous studies have examined factors that influence problematic smartphone use, few have investigated the interactions between different types of motivation and psychosocial well-being factors in facilitating problematic smartphone use. Thus, this study analyzed the moderating role of perceived stress on the relationship between entertainment or escapism motivation and problematic smartphone use. Using a sample of 600 typical smartphone users (Chinese college students) we found: (1) Perceived stress moderates the relationship between entertainment motivation and problematic smartphone use, and between escapism motivation and problematic smartphone use among users scoring high on problematic use; (2) perceived stress moderated the relationship between entertainment motivation and problematic use also among users scoring low on problematic smartphone use, but for these users stress did not moderate the relationship between escapism motivation and problematic use. Our study highlights the importance of unresolved real-life problems in facilitating problematic smartphone use, suggesting that the resolution of these problems might be a good starting point when researchers design interventions for people excessively relying on smartphones.