The impact of social media addiction on college students' mental health through social support and resilience.

Social media addiction had a significant positive relationship with mental health issues in Chinese undergraduates after controlling for covariates.

• Sample consisted of 1,020 Chinese undergraduates
• PLS-SEM (Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling) was used to analyze mediating and moderating pathways
• Standardized tools were used to assess mental health issues, social support, resilience, and social media addiction
• The relationship remained significant after controlling for covariates

Social support and resilience sequentially mediated the relationship between social media addiction and mental health issues.

• A sequential (chain) mediation analysis was conducted using PLS-SEM
• Both social support and resilience independently served as mediators in the pathway from social media addiction to mental health issues
• The mediation model was framed based on stress-buffering and resilience theories
• This represents an initial examination of how social support and resilience serve as chain mediators between social media addiction and mental health issues

Gender moderated the links from social media addiction and social support to mental health issues, with stronger effects observed in female students.

• Gender moderated the relationship between social media addiction and mental health issues
• Gender also moderated the relationship between social support and mental health issues
• Stronger effects were seen in female students compared to male students
• Gender did not significantly moderate the relationship linking resilience to mental health issues

The study proposed and tested a moderated chain mediation model examining how social support and resilience jointly link social media addiction and mental health issues.

• Prior studies had examined social support and resilience separately in reducing addictive behaviors, but few had examined how these two factors jointly link social media addiction and mental health issues
• The model was grounded in stress-buffering and resilience theories
• The study also examined how gender shapes the links between social media addiction, social support, resilience, and mental health issues
• The study was conducted with 1,020 Chinese undergraduates using standardized assessment tools