**1. Introduction**

Mobile phones, as the most accessible device to connect to the internet, have penetrated every aspect of daily lives, such that they help people obtain information, maintain social connectedness, and entertain themselves [1,2]. According to a national survey in China, there were 897 million mobile phone users as of March 2020, accounting for 99.3% of the Internet users [3]. Some of the users invested an excessive amount of time and resources into their mobile phones. This behavior can be described as problematic mobile phone use (PMPU), which refers to a constellation of emerging addiction symptoms, including cravings, withdrawal, and loss of control [4]. Numerous negative consequences occur after engaging in PMPU. For instance, PMPU has been identified to lead to sleep problems [5,6], poor academic performance and school adjustment [7,8], cognitive failures [6,9], and physical and mental health problems [10–12]. Furthermore, it was found that 10% of British adolescents were problematic users and 20.5% of them were potential problematic users [13]. A recent research showed that the prevalence of PMPU was 29% in young adults from the United Arab Emirates [1]. Such potential hazards and the high prevalence of PMPU stimulate public concerns and gain increasing scholarly attention.

People are active and purposive when engaging on the internet via mobile phones because it can satisfy specific psychological needs, as postulated by uses and gratification theory [14]. This perspective implies that people with unsatisfied needs in daily life tend to use mobile phones as a compensator to cope with the negative life situation. Combined with the model of compensatory internet use [15], this compensatory use of the internet via mobile phones is more likely to result in problematic use and addiction tendencies. A substantial body of literature has revealed that psychological needs dissatisfaction in daily life contributes to pathological Internet use (PIU) [16] and PMPU [17].

Based on self-determination theory, humans have three inherent psychological needs, including the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Deci and Ryan [18] proposed that psychological needs satisfaction is an essential nutriment for psychological growth and wellness; its dissatisfaction hinders self-integrity and lead to problematic outcomes. Given that different needs play different roles in behavior patterns and social functioning [19], an increasing number of studies attempted to differentiate the unique effect of each type of need. One of the very few studies found that only autonomy (not relatedness and competence) need dissatisfaction significantly predicted problematic online behaviors [20]. It is known that autonomy need is described as the need to self-regulate their experiences and actions [21]. That is, when behaviors are volitional and self-endorsed, individuals would experience high levels of autonomy need satisfaction. Stated differently, autonomy need dissatisfaction suggests what individuals do is not congruent with their intrinsic motivation and authentic interests. As a result, ameliorating behaviors, such as engaging on the internet through mobile phones, are activated to compensate for the lack of fulfillment of this kind of need, which increases the probability of problematic use [15]. In short, it seems that autonomy need dissatisfaction is positively associated with PMPU.

Furthermore, autonomy need dissatisfaction as the perceptions of the external environment can be considered to be a distal factor in explaining the etiology of addictive symptoms of PIU; these distal factors exert effects on maladaptive online behaviors via the mediating effects of proximal factors, as postulated in the cognitive-behavioral model of PIU [22]. For instance, boredom proneness results from the external environment without autonomy [23], and servers as a contributor to PMPU [24,25]. Similarly, online gaming, as a specific behavioral response to cope with autonomy need dissatisfaction, is an important predictor of PMPU [26]. These relations indicate that boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming may be potential mediators in the process. However, there has been a lack of empirical research to support this relation. To address this issue, this study aimed to examine the mediating roles of boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming in the association between autonomy need dissatisfaction in daily life and PMPU.

#### *1.1. Boredom Proneness as a Mediator*

Boredom proneness may be a potential mediator between autonomy need dissatisfaction and PMPU. Specifically, boredom refers to a general tendency to experience boredom in situations with deficits in interest, meaning, excitement, and challenge [27]. People with autonomy need dissatisfaction have relatively few opportunities to make their own decisions, and have to engage in activities incongruent with their authentic interests [21]. Thus, non-interest-orientated activities may lead to low levels of psychological arousal and high levels of boredom proneness [28]. This notion has been supported by the various findings that psychological needs (including autonomy need) satisfaction/dissatisfaction significantly predicts boredom in sports activities [29], in academic settings [30], and in work domains [31]. In a 2009 study, adolescent soccer athletes who perceived less autonomy reported more boredom experience [23]. Thus, autonomy need dissatisfaction in daily life seems to be positively associated with boredom proneness.

Regarding the second stage of the mediation process, boredom proneness has been identified as a high-risk factor for PIU [32,33] and PMPU [24,34]. Adolescents with high levels of boredom proneness tend to experience low levels of internal motivation and external stimulation [27]. One approach to cope with boredom is to engage in online activities as they may help to increase the feelings of excitement and sensation [32,35]. Chronic and habitual use of this approach would increase the risk of engaging in PIU [32,33]. Similarly, previous research has found that boredom proneness positively predicts PMPU among adolescents [24,34]. Altogether, it appears that autonomy need dissatisfaction is positively associated with boredom proneness, which in turn is positively associated with PMPU.

#### *1.2. Mobile Phone Gaming as a Mediator*

Another potential mediator may be mobile phone gaming, because distal causes and proximal factors jointly facilitate an excessive use of specific internet functions (e.g., online gaming), which further leads to behavioral symptoms of PIU [22]. As stated earlier, individuals with autonomy need dissatisfaction may activate ameliorating behaviors to compensate for the deficits in this kind of need. As reviewed by Ryan and Deci [21], a key characteristic of games is providing opportunities for actions. For instance, players are free to choose the types of games and activities that they want to engage in, to decide the avatars and roles, and to fulfill the game missions. Experimental evidence has indicated that the autonomy character of a game would facilitate immersion-related experiences, further increasing enjoyment and decreasing boredom in the game world [36]. In this sense, people who experience autonomy need dissatisfaction might have the motivation to engage in gaming as a way to compensate, thus exhibiting longer game-playtime on a weekly basis [37]. More important, empirical research has found that psychological needs dissatisfaction [38] and autonomy need dissatisfaction [20] in the real world positively predict the excessive use of video games. Thus, autonomy need dissatisfaction appears to be positively associated with frequent mobile phone gaming.

Moreover, when adolescents have a history of mobile phone use for gaming, desirable game experiences (e.g., flow experience in the game world) may encourage them to repeatedly engage in this activity [39]. In the long run, they are more likely to frequently act on mobile phones and become addicted to using mobile phones [40]. In support of this notion, frequent online gaming has been shown to positively predict PIU in cross-sectional research [41] and predict PIU one year later in the longitudinal research [42]. Similarly, Jeong, Kim, Yum and Hwang [26] and Lee, Kim and Choi [40] found that frequent mobile gaming contributed to PMPU. Altogether, it appears that autonomy need dissatisfaction is positively associated with mobile phone gaming, which in turn is positively associated with PMPU.

#### *1.3. A Multiple Mediation Model*

The mediating roles of boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming have been advanced to describe the relation between autonomy need dissatisfaction and PMPU wherein boredom proneness was argued to positively associate with frequent mobile phone use [43]. For instance, Chou, et al. [44] found that adolescents with high boredom proneness are more easily to perceive low levels of external stimulation and are more likely to engage in online gaming for self-entertainment. Likewise, Biolcati, Mancini and Trombini [25] supported this finding and found that adolescents with higher boredom proneness reported higher levels of participation in mobile phone gaming in comparison to adolescents with lower boredom proneness.

Taken together, individuals with autonomy need dissatisfaction in the real world cannot voluntarily make choices and engage in activities congruent with their authentic interests [18]. Thus, they are prone to having low intrinsic motivation and exhibit low psychological involvement, which may increase the tendency to experience boredom [21,45,46]. Furthermore, bored individuals are more likely to play mobile games as a compensator of boredom [15]. In this regard, frequent mobile phone gaming increases the risk of problematic use and addictive symptoms [26,40]. Accordingly, it is possible that

autonomy need dissatisfaction is indirectly associated with PMPU via the multiple mediating role of boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming.

#### *1.4. The Present Study*

According to the above findings, autonomy need dissatisfaction in daily life has been argued to be a contributing factor to PMPU. Autonomy need dissatisfaction as the perceptions of the external environment may exert effects on psychological symptoms via individual characteristics. Based on self-determination theory [18], the model of compensatory internet use [15], and the cognitive-behavioral model of PIU [22], boredom proneness as a dispositional factor can be partially attributed to the lack of autonomy from the external environment; and gaming involved a specific mobile phone usage can be considered as coping strategies. That is, boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming can be postulated as potential mediators to elucidate how autonomy need dissatisfaction was associated with PMPU. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of empirical research, especially using cross-temporal designs, to examine whether autonomy need dissatisfaction is associated with PMPU via the mediating roles of boredom proneness and mobile phone gaming. To this end, we attempted to assess the independent variable in Time 1 (T1), the mediating variables in Time 2 (T2), and the dependent variable in Time 3 (T3). As shown in Figure 1, this study was guided by the following hypotheses:

**H1:** *T1 autonomy need dissatisfaction in daily life is positively associated with T3 PMPU.*

**H2:** *T2 boredom proneness mediates the association between T1 autonomy need dissatisfaction and T3 PMPU.*

**H3:** *T2 mobile phone gaming mediates the association between T1 autonomy need dissatisfaction and T3 PMPU.*

**H4:** *T1 autonomy need dissatisfaction in daily life is indirectly associated with T3 PMPU through the multiple mediating role of T2 boredom proneness and T2 mobile phone gaming.*

**Figure 1.** The conceptual model between autonomy need dissatisfaction and PMPU. Note. T1 Autonomy = Autonomy need dissatisfaction in Time 1; T2 Boredom = Boredom proneness in Time 2; T2 Gaming = Mobile phone gaming in Time 2; T3 PMPU = Problematic mobile phone use in Time 3.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Participants and Procedures*

A sample of 1060 students from a regular secondary school in Beijing, China, was recruited to participate in the first data collection (T1). Due to graduation, 819 students participated in the second data collection (T2) after one year and 358 students participated in the third data collection (T3) after two years. This study focused on the participants who completed the questionnaires at three waves. The sample comprised 154 (43.0%) boys and 204 girls (57.0%). They had an average age of 13.19

years (standard deviation (*SD)* = 1.44), ranging from 12 to 16 years. Each participant reported having a constant Internet-accessible mobile phone.

This research was approved by the Academic Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology at Beijing Normal University. Before the formal investigation, participants and their parents or legal guardians were provided with written consent forms, which informed them that personal information would be kept confidential and their responses would be used only for research purposes. Additionally, students were informed that they had the right to opt out of the research at any time. The research assistants distributed and collected the self-report questionnaires in the regular classrooms. Data collection took approximately 15 min, and participants were compensated with a small gift (e.g., a pen).
