본 연구는 청소년의 부정정서인 공격성, 우울, 사회적 의존이 성인용매체 몰입에 미치는 영향을 파악하고, 두 변인 간의 관계에서 스마트폰이 매개효과를 갖는지 살펴봄으로써 청소년들이 균형잡힌 스마트폰 이용과 함께 성인매체 몰입을 예방하고 감소시키기 위한 미디어교육적 함의를 얻고자하였다. 이에 따라 한국 아동 · 청소년패널조사(KCYPS)2010’ 초등학교 4학년 패널의 5차년도(2014년)자료를 사용하였다. 이 자료의 중학교 2학년(2,378명)을 분석대상으로 하였으며, 자료분석은 SPSS 23.0 프로그램을 사용하여 기술통계, 상관관계분석, 위계적 다중회귀분석을 실행하였고, Process macro를 통하여 매개효과를 검증하였다. 분석결과 첫째, 청소년의 공격성과 우울 및 사회적 위축은 성인용매체 몰입에 유의미한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 공격성과 우울 및 사회적 위축은 스마트폰 의존에 대해 정적인 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 청소년의 스마트폰 의존은 성인용매체 몰입에 정적인 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 스마트폰 의존을 매개로 청소년의 공격성과 우울은 성인용 매체 몰입에 유의미하게 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 청소년의 부정정서인 공격성과 우울은 직접적으로 성인용매체 몰입에 영향을 미치는 것과 동시에 청소년의 스마트폰 의존은 공격성 · 우울과 성인용매체 몰입 사이에서 부분 매개효과를 보이고 있었다. 이러한 연구결과를 바탕으로 청소년의 부정정서와 스마트폰 의존을 고려한 청소년의 성인용매체 몰입에 대한 예방 및 감소를 위한 이론적· 실천적 함의를 통해 미디어교육적 개입과 고려가 필요함을 제안하였다.
This study pursued to obtain media education implications for preventing and reducing youth’s immersion in adult media, along with the balanced use of smartphone, by identifying the impact of youth’s negative emotions (i.e., aggression, depression) on their immersion in adult media and by examining whether smartphone dependence would mediate those relationships. For this analysis, this research used the data of 5th-year version (2014) about 4th-grade elementary students in the Korean Children & Youth Panel Research (KCYPS) 2010’. The 2nd-year middle school students (n = 2,378) in the above data were used for testing multiple hypotheses. To test proposed hypotheses, this study mainly used multiple hierarchical regression analyses. In order to check the mediated effects, the process macro was used. The results showed that youth’s aggression, depression and social withdrawal had significant effects on their immersion in adult media. Second, youth’s aggression, depression and social withdrawal had positive effects on youth’s smartphone dependence. Third, youth’s smartphone dependence had positive effect on their immersion in adult media. Fourth, the result indicated that youth’s aggression and depression mediated the relationship between smartphone dependence and the immersion in adult media. That is, youth’s aggression and depression directly influence their immersion in adult media, while their smartphone dependence significantly mediated the relationship between the negative emotions and their immersion in adult media. Based on these findings and their theoretical and practical implications, this study suggested that youth’s negative emotions and their smartphone dependence could be considered for media education intervention in order to prevent and reduce youth’s immersion in adult media. Theoretically, considering that there had been little empirical research of investigating the relationships among youth’s negative emotions, smartphone dependence, and immersion in adult media, this research’s main findings contribute to developing comprehensive models of explaining relationships among those main variables. In terms of practical implications, considering that youth can easily access adult media contents through smartphones, this study suggests the development of media education programs that help youth judge and screen out harmful messages from adult media contents. Second, in order to prevent overdependence on smartphones, this study recommends adopting media education mainly about the major characteristics smartphones as well as their positive and negative influences on the youth"s daily life. Third, according to this research’s findings about youth"s negative emotions, media education programs are needed not only for students but also for parents and teachers. Media education with parents and teachers can contribute to the desirable media content consumption and production culture among young population.