{
  "abstract": "Problematic smartphone use (PSU) and academic procrastination (AP) are reliably correlated among university students, but the evidence base is almost entirely cross-sectional, and the only existing longitudinal study tested a single direction using a model that cannot separate stable trait-like co-occurrence from genuine within-person dynamics. This study used a four-wave Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) to test both directions of within-person prediction simultaneously in a sample of Chinese undergraduates (N = 512 at intake, 422 retained by the fourth wave) surveyed across a full academic year, and to test whether the well-documented PSU-AP association persists after accounting for trait self-control and trait negative affect. The model fit the data well, χ²(45) = 67.72, CFI = 0.994, RMSEA = 0.031, SRMR = 0.022. Within-person increases in PSU predicted later increases in AP in one interval only, the final T3 → T4 interval (β = 0.374, p < 0.001); the two earlier intervals were non-significant, and a stationarity test confirmed that the three are not statistically equivalent, Δχ²(2) = 11.16, p = 0.004. The pooled estimate, γ = 0.213, is accordingly reported as a descriptive summary of a heterogeneous set of paths rather than as a stable within-person effect, and the wave-specific estimates, the T3 → T4 path in particular, carry the evidence for H1. Within-person increases in AP were not detected as predictors of later PSU at any wave (pooled δ = -0.013, p = 0.863, a defensible single estimate since these three waves were statistically equivalent); a design-stage Monte Carlo check gave about 0.81 power for an effect of the hypothesized size, so this is a reasonably informative null: the AP → PSU pathway was not detected at a three-month lag in this sample, which is not the same as showing it absent. The two directions differed in estimated magnitude; an equality-constraint likelihood-ratio test within the RI-CLPM confirmed the asymmetry at the final interval, Δχ²(1) = 9.16, p = 0.002, although the γ side rests on a single interval, so the asymmetry is specific to the T3 → T4 window. The random-intercept correlation between PSU and AP remained significant in the full model adjusting for all six T1 covariates (r = 0.250, p < 0.001), indicating a substantial trait-level component. However, the pooled cross-lagged estimates did not hold their values once a common-method factor was added. That specification is too weakly identified to re-estimate the correlation at all, so shared-method inflation cannot be excluded for either. A traditional cross-lagged panel model without this trait/state decomposition showed markedly inflated stability and cross-lagged estimates by comparison. PSU met metric but not scalar longitudinal invariance, which qualifies the interpretation of within-person change on that construct. However, refitting the model on an item-reduced PSU composite left the focal estimate essentially unchanged (T3 → T4 β = 0.378). These findings indicate that the PSU-AP relationship, as observed here, is interval-specific rather than uniform, directionally asymmetric within the one interval in which a within-person effect was detected, and only partially dynamic; they are best read as hypotheses about how future intervention research might be sequenced and targeted rather than as direct guidance for practice.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou, China."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 1,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Peng Che"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jf9bgd50mqz2.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1935647",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13680411",
  "id": "4jf9bgd50mqz2",
  "issns": [
    "1664-1078"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42903261",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3203|Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220667712",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13680411?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13680411",
  "pmid": "42903261",
  "published": "2026-10-06",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jf9bgd50mqz2.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:57Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42903261",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42903261"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:3203|Perfectionism, Procrastination, Anxiety Studies",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Problematic smartphone use and academic procrastination over an academic year: a four-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel study of Chinese undergraduates.",
  "title_text": "Problematic smartphone use and academic procrastination over an academic year: a four-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel study of Chinese undergraduates.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:57Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4jf9bgd50mqz2",
  "venue": "Frontiers in psychology",
  "versions": []
}