The Association between Perceived Stress and Mobile Phone Addiction in COVID-19 Epidemic: The Role of Rumination and Self-Control

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of rumination and self-control in the link between perceived stress and mobile phone addiction during the COVID-19 epidemic. The present study was conducted using a correlational method and a structural equation modeling approach.The statistical population of the study included Tehran province college students which 230 people were selected voluntarily and answered the online scales include Depression-Anxiety-Stress, Smartphone Addiction, Ruminative Responses and Self-Control. The results the structural equation model showed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived stress predicts the students addiction to cell phone positively. Rumination plays a mediator role between perceived stress and cell phone addiction. Moreover, self-control moderates the effect of the mediator role between perceived stress on rumination, and effect of rumination on cell phone addiction. This study focuses on the importance of rumination and self-control in understanding a probable association between perceived stress and cell phone addiction, that can be used to develop the interventions to reduce the problematic behavior among the students the COVID-19 pandemic.