The interplay of expressive suppression, mental well-being, and perceived social support in smartphone addiction

Abstract

The association between expressive suppression and smartphone addiction was examined through the mediation of mental well-being, and the moderating role of perceived social support in Peshawar, Pakistan, among a group of young adults. Purposive convenience sampling technique was used and the instruments were filled out by a sample of 311 smartphone users aged between 18 to 30 (M = 21.83; SD = 1.89). Results showed that the expressive suppression significantly and positively predicted smartphone addiction (B = .41, p < .001). Interestingly, expressive suppression was also positively related to mental wellbeing, and was found to be a significant predictor (B = .18, p < .001) as well. The results of the mediation analysis using the process Model 4 found no support for an indirect relationship between expressive suppression and smartphone addiction mediated by mental wellbeing (Indirect effect = 0.002, Boot SE = 0.02, 95% Boot CI = [-0.04, 0.04]). The results of the Model 1 analysis showed that this association between expressive suppression and mental wellbeing was significantly moderated by perceived social support (ΔR2 = .029, p = .001). Expressive Suppression was positively correlated with mental wellbeing when social support was low (B = .27; p < .001) and average (B = .11; p = .030) and not with mental wellbeing when social support was high (B = -.01; p = .869), as demonstrated by the conditional effects.