Digital addiction and school engagement among high school students through anti-mattering and life satisfaction

The association between digital addiction and adolescents’ psychological well-being and academic life has attracted growing scholarly interest. This study examines the association between digital addiction and school engagement among high school students, focusing on the statistically significant serial indirect association through anti-mattering and life satisfaction. A quantitative research design was adopted, using data collected from 437 high school students.

Digital addiction was found to have a positive correlation with anti-mattering and a negative correlation with life satisfaction and school engagement. According to the findings of structural equation modeling, digital addiction was not significantly associated with school engagement. Nevertheless, the indirect association was suggested by the serial mediation analysis, indicating that digital addiction was associated with higher anti-mattering, and anti-mattering was associated with lower life satisfaction, which was, moreover, associated with lower school engagement (indirect association: B = – 0.031, 95% CI [– 0.051, – 0.014]).

The results emphasize the links between digital addiction, mental health, and academic achievement, as well as the need for intervention programs designed to target students’ life satisfaction and anti-mattering. The authors received no financial support for this article’s research, authorship, and/or publication. Faculty of Education, Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey Faculty of Education, Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey Ministry of National Education, Konya, Turkey Faculty of Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey Eregli Faculty of Education, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey School of Foreign Languages, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Sakarya, Turkey The authors declare no competing interests.

The study protocol has been approved by Necmettin Erbakan University Scientific Research and Ethical Review Board (13/06/2025–2025/552). The study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its following updates. Informed consent was obtained from all the participants included in the study.

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