Objective To explore the intervention effect of reading therapy on college students’ cell phone dependence and to provide reference for mitigating college students’ cell phone dependence.Methods In September2019

35 students who were cell phone dependent and willing to participate in reading therapy intervention in the second year of a college in a university in Jiangxi were selected as the study subjects.A random number table was used to divide the students into a control group（n=18） and a study group（n=17）.Students in the control group did not receive any intervention.The students in the study group received the reading therapy intervention.Before and after the reading therapy intervention

the students’ cell phone addiction was assessed using the Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale for College Students.Results Before and after the intervention

there was no statistically significant difference between the scores of withdrawal symptoms

emergent behaviors

social soothing

mind change scores and total scores in scale for the control group students（P>0.05）.Before and after the intervention

there was statistically significant difference between the scores of withdrawal symptoms

emergent behaviors

social soothing

mind change scores and total scores in scale for the study group students（P<0.05）.After the intervention

the scores of withdrawal symptoms

emergent behaviors

social soothing

and altered mood and the total score of the scale were 18.25±2.17

10.33±2.15

9.32±1.47

8.17±2.03

and 46.07±4.00

respectively

for the study group students

which were lower than those of the control group at21.06±2.49

13.64±2.99

11.71±2.39

12.15±2.40

and 58.56±3.80

with statistically significant differences（P<0.05）.Conclusion Reading therapy can be an effective means of intervening against cell phone dependence among college students.