<p>Childhood psychological maltreatment has been shown to relate to mobile phone addiction. However, few studies have considered children from rural areas and fully clarified the directionality of this relation. To address these gaps, the current study employed a longitudinal design with a 1-year interval to examine bidirectional relations among childhood psychological maltreatment, social anxiety, and mobile phone addiction in China. Data were collected from 1463 rural children in 4th and 5th grades at baseline (48.40% girls, M age = 11.66, SD = .72) and analyzed via a two-wave cross-lagged panel model using structural equation modeling. The results showed that childhood psychological maltreatment positively predicted social anxiety and mobile phone addiction 1&#xa0;year later, and there were bidirectional relations between childhood psychological maltreatment and social anxiety. Social anxiety positively predicted mobile phone addiction 1&#xa0;year later and mediated the relation between childhood psychological maltreatment and mobile phone addiction. Expressive suppression moderated the link between childhood psychological maltreatment and social anxiety. Sex, left-behind status, and boarding status did not play a moderating role. These findings contribute to a comprehensive perspective on the reciprocal associations among childhood psychological maltreatment, social anxiety, and mobile phone addiction, and highlight the importance of addressing social anxiety as a key intervention strategy to reduce rural children’s mobile phone addiction.</p>