Beyond the Wish: Actual Mobile Phone Use Surpassing Desire Brings More Distress

Mobile devices have become deeply embedded in adolescents’ social worlds. While prior research linked mobile phone use (MPU) and mental health outcomes among adolescents, few studies distinguished between actual-MPU and desired-MPU. This study aimed to address this gap by examining the impact of incongruence between actual-MPU and desired-MPU on psychological distress. A total of 678 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 14.62 years, SD = 1.61) participated in the study. The cubic Response Surface Analysis (RSA) revealed that adolescents with greater incongruence between actual-MPU and desired-MPU experienced more psychological distress. Even amidst congruence, higher mean levels of actual-MPU and desired-MPU were associated with more distress. Notably, adolescents experienced more distress when the actual-MPU surpassed the desired-MPU than when the desired-MPU was higher than the actual-MPU. The present study conceptualized and distinguished between actual-MPU and desired-MPU. Integrating the actual-MPU and desired-MPU provides a new direction for intervening in psychological distress.