Objective To describe the prevalence of problematic mobile phone use, social support and depression symptoms among college students in China, and to analyze the relationship between problematic mobile phone use and depression symptoms and the modification effect of social support on the relationship.

Methods We conducted an anonymous questionnaire survey among 1 265 students selected with cluster sampling in three schools of Anhui Medical University between March and April 2016. The Self-Rating Questionnaire for Adolescent Problematic Mobile Phone Use (SQAPMPU), Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and the Adolescent Social Support Scale were applied in the survey. Chi-square test was adopoted to evaluate differences in the prevalence of problematic mobile phone use, high social support and depression between different groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between problematic mobile phone use and depression symptoms.

Results The detection rate of problematic mobile phone use and depression symptoms were 25.4% (321/1 265) and 40.8% (516/1 265), respectively. Of all the participants, 333 (26.3%) reported high social support; 118 (9.3%), 357 (28.2%), and 370 (29.2%) reported perceived, objective, and utilization of high social support. The detection rate of problematic mobile phone use, depression symptoms and high social support differed by family economic condition, academic record, and number of friends significantly (P < 0.05 for all). The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that problematic mobile phone use was a risk factor for depression symptoms, while high social support was a protective factor against depression symptoms. The correlation between problematic mobile phone use and depression symptoms was less strong among the participants with high social support (including perceived, objective and utilization of social support) than among those with low social support after adjusting for sex, age, residence before attending university, self-rating family economic condition, and the number of friends.

Conclusion Problematic mobile phone use is positively associated with depression symptoms and the correlation could be modified by social support in college students.