A Cross-Sectional Association Between Screen-Based Sedentary Behavior and Anxiety in Academic College Students: Mediating Role of Negative Emotions and Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation

Xili Wen; Yujun Cai; Kai Li; Zisu Wang; Weiyi Zhang; Man Qin

doi:10.2147/PRBM.S430928

A Cross-Sectional Association Between Screen-Based Sedentary Behavior and Anxiety in Academic College Students: Mediating Role of Negative Emotions and Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation

Psychol Res Behav Manag. 2023 Oct 18:16:4221-4235. doi: 10.2147/PRBM.S430928. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xili Wen¹, Yujun Cai¹, Kai Li¹, Zisu Wang¹, Weiyi Zhang¹, Man Qin²

Affiliations

¹ School of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
² Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: The study aims to explore the relationship and potential mechanisms between screen time and anxiety and have a clear understanding of the role of negative emotions and emotion regulation, thus providing guidance for Chinese college students to improve mental health.

Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey by selecting 1721 academic college students from 6 colleges and universities in 5 provinces in China, and the data were analyzed through the Process program of SPSS for mediating effect and moderating effect.

Results: There is a significant positive relationship between screen time and anxiety, negative emotions play a mediating role between the two (indirect effect = 0.32, p < 0.001), mediating effect accounts for 59.88% of the total effect, and emotion regulation regulates the direct relationship between screen time and anxiety (interaction effect = 0.027, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: This study sheds light on the potential mechanisms by which screen time affects anxiety in academic college students, providing a fresh perspective on anxiety reduction. Screen time positively affects anxiety levels, where negative emotions have a mediating role and emotion regulation has a moderating role. In the future, we can control screen ++time, increase physical activities, reduce negative emotions, and improve the emotional regulation ability to relieve anxiety, so as to improve the mental health of academic college students, and expect to have a positive impact on future learning, life, and planning.

Keywords: anxiety; college students; emotion regulation; negative emotions; sedentary behavior.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the National Social Science Fund of China under the 2019 General Project of Education for the 13th Five-Year Plan, Research on Theoretical Analysis, Model Construction and Test Optimization of Evaluation of Primary and Secondary School Physical Education Teachers (BLA190216).