The prospective associations among time management tendency, negative emotions, and problematic smartphone use in Chinese nursing students: enlightenment from COVID-19

Nani Ding; Jiaqi Shi; Huihui Xu; Xiaoyi Wang; Guilin Liu; Lijie Mao; Guohua Zhang; Jingjing Zhang

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2024.1323273

The prospective associations among time management tendency, negative emotions, and problematic smartphone use in Chinese nursing students: enlightenment from COVID-19

Front Public Health. 2024 Feb 8:12:1323273. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1323273. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Nani Ding^#¹, Jiaqi Shi^#², Huihui Xu^#³, Xiaoyi Wang², Guilin Liu⁴, Lijie Mao⁵, Guohua Zhang^{3

6}, Jingjing Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology, Wenzhou, China.
² School of Nursing, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
³ Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
⁴ School of Public Health and Management, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
⁵ First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.
⁶ Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Affiliated Wenzhou Kangning Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: The regularity of epidemic prevention and control measures in China has meant that nursing students have been exposed to more electronic devices, while problematic smartphone use has increased. The purpose of this study is to determine the prospective associations among time management tendency, negative emotions, and problematic smartphone use in nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted between November 2021 and May 2022. A total of 989 nursing students participated. The convenience sampling method was adopted and the following tools were used: the Adolescence Time Management Disposition Scale, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales - 21, and the Mobile Phone Addiction Index. Multiple parallel mediation models were used by Mplus.

Results: Time management tendency had a significantly negative effect on problematic smartphone use (p < 0.05). Further tests using mediation models showed that stress as a negative emotion mediated the relationship between time management tendency and problematic smartphone use (p < 0.05) over time.

Conclusion: Nursing educators need to strengthen the stress resistance and time management ability of nursing students.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; negative emotions; nursing student; problematic smartphone use; time management tendency.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
COVID-19* / epidemiology
China / epidemiology
Emotions
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Pandemics
Smartphone
Students, Nursing*
Time Management

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Wenzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau‘s basic scientific research project in 2023 [Grant No. R2023060].