Objective: To analyze the heterogeneity of mobile phone dependence development trajectory in middle school students and its association with loneliness and selfcontrol ability, so as to provide reference for the prevention of mobile phone dependence in middle school students. Methods: A total of 941 grade 1 students from 4 public middle schools in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province were selected for the followup survey by random cluster sampling from October 2023 to April 2024 and October 2024. Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), University of California, Los Angeles Loneliness Scale-20 (UCLA-20) and Selfcontrol Scales (SCS) were used for questionnaire survey. The heterogeneity of the developmental trajectory of middle school students mobile phone dependence was analyzed by the latent growth curve model (LGMM), and the influencing factors of the developmental trajectory of middle school students mobile phone dependence were explored by multiple Logistic regression analysis. Results: The development trajectory of middle school students mobile phone dependence could be divided into four categories: C1 "low risk slow decline group (n=438,44.6%)", C2 "medium risk slow rise group (n=272,29.7%)", C3 "high risk rapid decline group (n=73,8.6%)" and C4 "high risk rapid rise group (n=158,17.1%)". There were significant differences in the distribution of mobile phone dependence development track heterogeneity subgroups among sex, only child, lodging, and leftbehind students (χ2=117.79, 44.88, 37.09, 130.50, P <0.01). The results of the multinomial Logistic regression model analysis showed that, with C1 group as the reference, C2, C3, and C4 were positively correlated with students loneliness [OR(95%CI)=1.04 (1.02-1.06), 1.11(1.08-1.14), 1.12(1.09-1.14)]; C2 and C4 groups were negatively correlated with students selfcontrol [OR(95%CI)=0.97(0.96-0.99), 0.95(0.93-0.97)] (P<0.01). Conclusions The development trajectory of mobile phone dependence among middle school students is heterogeneous. Reducing the loneliness of individuals and cultivating good selfcontrol ability are helpful to alleviate mobile phone dependence behavior among middle school students.