Common Predictive Factors of Social Media Addiction and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Female College Students: State Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility/Sustained Attention

Zhonghua He; Mingde Li; Chanjun Liu; Xiaoyue Ma

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647126

Common Predictive Factors of Social Media Addiction and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Female College Students: State Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility/Sustained Attention

Front Psychol. 2022 Mar 29:12:647126. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647126. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Zhonghua He¹, Mingde Li¹, Chanjun Liu¹, Xiaoyue Ma¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Journalism and New Media, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the common predictive factors between social media addiction (SMA) and eating disorder symptoms (EDS), in a group of Chinese female college students. A total of 216 students completed the behavioral assessments of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention, as well as the questionnaires on anxiety, social media dependence, and eating disorders. The results indicate that SMA is significantly correlated with EDS. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model in which state anxiety, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention predicted social gain and EDS. Additionally, the results confirmed the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention between state anxiety and SMA/EDS in the participants. The findings revealed that in the sample group, state anxiety was related to SMA and EDS through cognitive flexibility and sustained attention. These proposals reflect the significance of improving cognitive flexibility/sustained attention and reducing state anxiety to prevent EDS and SMA in female college students.

Keywords: cognitive flexibility; common predictive factors; eating disorder symptoms; female college students; social media addiction; state anxiety; sustained attention.