Ostracism and Problematic Smartphone Use: the Mediating Effect of Social Self-Efficacy and Moderating Effect of Rejection Sensitivity

Problematic smartphone use has become a prominent social problem, and factors shaping this behavior have been a research focus. Based on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model, we examined the association between ostracism and problematic smartphone use, and individual differences in the relation (i.e., the mediating role of social self-efficacy and the moderating role of rejection sensitivity). A sample of 800 undergraduates were recruited to complete questionnaires. The SPSS PROCESS was used to test the moderated mediation model and the Johnson-Neyman method was used to analyze the moderating effect of rejection sensitivity. As predicted, ostracism was positively associated with problematic smartphone use. Social self-efficacy partially mediated this relation. Rejection sensitivity moderated the relation between ostracism and social self-efficacy—with the association being weaker for students with higher rejection sensitivity. The results have both theoretical and practical implications.