Short-form video addiction and psychological resilience: a cognitive-existential serial mediation model among Chinese college students

This study examined the serial mediating roles of belief in a just world (BJW) and meaning in life in the association between short-form video addiction and psychological resilience among Chinese college students. A total of 4,456 participants ( M age = 20.34, SD = 1.52; 52.1% female) from five universities in Sichuan Province completed measures of short-form video addiction, BJW, meaning in life, and psychological resilience. Serial mediation analysis (PROCESS Model 6; 5,000 bootstrap samples) revealed that short-form video addiction negatively predicted resilience ( B = −0.1948, p < 0.001). Three indirect pathways were significant: through BJW alone [Effect = −0.0337, 95% CI (−0.0426, −0.0254)], through meaning in life alone [Effect = −0.0606, 95% CI (−0.0769, −0.0443)], and through BJW sequentially to meaning in life [Effect = −0.0274, 95% CI (−0.0337, −0.0215)]. The total indirect effect accounted for 62.5% of the total effect. Meaning in life was the strongest proximal correlate of resilience ( β = 0.5410). These findings are consistent with a cognitive-existential sequential association pattern in which short-form video addiction is associated with weakened worldview beliefs and diminished existential meaning, which in turn are associated with lower resilience. Implications for multi-layered university interventions are discussed.