Mental health correlates of social anxiety, smartphone addiction, phubbing, and depressive symptoms in Peruvian college students

Introduction – Social anxiety is a relevant mental health problem associated with excessive smartphone use and phubbing—ignoring others in favor of one's phone—both of which may increase depressive symptoms. Yet these variables have rarely been tested together in a unified model, particularly in Latin-American samples. Objective – To examine how social anxiety is associated with smartphone addiction, phubbing behavior, and depressive symptoms as mental health outcomes among Peruvian college students. Methods – A cross-sectional survey was administered to 434 Peruvian undergraduates from two private institutions and one public university in Ica, Peru, using a convenience sampling strategy. Students completed the Social Anxiety Questionnaire, the TMD-Brief for smartphone addiction, the Communication Disturbance subscale of the Phubbing Scale, and the PHQ-9 for depression. Structural equation modeling with maximum-likelihood bootstrapping examined direct and indirect paths. Results – The final model demonstrated good fit to the data, χ²(86) = 214.03, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04. Social anxiety showed significant positive effects on smartphone addiction, phubbing, and depression. Smartphone addiction strongly predicted phubbing, which in turn predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms. The model accounted for 32% of the variance in smartphone addiction, 39% in phubbing, and 37% in depression. Conclusions – Among Peruvian college students, social anxiety was associated with depressive symptoms both directly and indirectly through digital behaviors. Excessive smartphone use was associated with poorer outcomes particularly when it manifested as phubbing, highlighting the relational cost of constant phone engagement. Interventions targeting social anxiety, problematic smartphone use, and face-to-face interaction may contribute to improved mental health and emotional well-being.