Relationships Between Psychological Resilience, Rejection Sensitivity, and Short-Video Addiction in University Students: A Cross-Lagged Analysis

Short-video addiction has emerged as a growing behavioral concern in the context of the widespread use of platforms such as Douyin and TikTok, posing potential risks to young adults' psychological well-being. Psychological resilience and rejection sensitivity are considered important psychological characteristics that may function as protective and risk factors, respectively, in the development of addictive media use. However, the longitudinal interplay among these variables remains insufficiently understood. This study examined the longitudinal relationships among psychological resilience, rejection sensitivity, and short-video addiction over time among university students. A two-wave longitudinal design with a six-month interval was conducted among 1394 Chinese university students. Participants completed validated measures assessing short-video addiction, psychological resilience (CD-RISC-10), and rejection sensitivity (RSQ). Cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) was employed to investigate the bidirectional predictive associations among these variables while controlling for autoregressive effects. All three constructs demonstrated substantial temporal stability across the two measurement waves. Cross-lagged analyses indicated that higher psychological resilience at Time 1 predicted lower rejection sensitivity and lower short-video addiction at Time 2, whereas higher rejection sensitivity at Time 1 predicted lower psychological resilience and higher short-video addiction over time. Although these longitudinal associations were statistically significant, their effect sizes were modest. These findings suggest that psychological resilience and rejection sensitivity may represent protective and vulnerability-related psychological characteristics associated with short-video addiction over time. The findings support the I-PACE model by highlighting the dynamic and longitudinal associations among psychological resources, interpersonal vulnerability, and addictive digital behaviors. Interventions aimed at strengthening psychological resilience and reducing rejection sensitivity may contribute to preventing short-video addiction and promoting healthier digital engagement among university students.