Perceived Overqualification and Intensive Smartphone Use: A Moderated Mediation Model

• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.794913
• Publication Date: 2022-02-25T09:02:26Z
• Authors: Xiongliang Peng; Kun Yu; Kairui Zhang; Hanbing Xue; Jianfeng Peng
• Keywords: person-environment (PE) fit theory; perceived overqualification; 05 social sciences; Psychology; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; affective commitment; job boredom; intensive smartphone use; BF1-990

Previous studies only considered the impact of personal or environmental factors on intensive smartphone use separately, while largely ignoring the impact of person-environment (P-E) fit on it. Drawing on the P-E fit theory, we proposed that perceived overqualification (POQ), an indicator of person-job misfit, positively affects intensive smartphone use via job boredom, and affective commitment moderates this indirect effect. We examined our hypotheses using four-wave time-lag data of 450 workers from 62 teams. The results revealed that POQ raised job boredom of an individual and thus increased their intensive smartphone use. In addition, when the affective commitment was high, the indirect effect from POQ to intensive smartphone use via job boredom was weaker. The implications, limitations, and future directions of this research were discussed.