Short-video engagement, health-related behaviors, and mental well-being: Evidence from a longitudinal study of Chinese youth
Zhou D, Lin LM
Acta psychologica · 0 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Cohort study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China
- Government
- Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of China
- Government
- Humanities and Social Science Fund of Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
Based on 3 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2026-03-13 · Acta Psychol (Amst) · vol. 265 · p. 106624
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Cited
- 1 citation · more than 99% of similar papers · 31.0× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 42 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY-NC
- Research areas
- Media Influence and Health · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction · Flow Experience in Various Fields
- Keywords
- youth mental health, depressive symptoms, physical activity, sleep timing, smoking, health behavior, digital engagement, Chinese youth, social media use patterns
- MeSH
- humans, exercise, longitudinal studies, depression, health behavior, mental health, adolescent, child, china, female, male, psychological well-being, east asian people, media exposure, digital media
2 authors
From CN
- Dong ZhouShanghai Jiao Tong University
- Li-Min Lin · correspondingShanghai Jiao Tong University
Abstract
The rapid growth of short-form video platforms presents both potential public health considerations and new avenues for social engagement, yet longitudinal evidence on how different patterns of short video use are linked to youth mental health remains limited. Using two waves of nationally representative data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study applies complementary analytical approaches: two-way fixed effects models (FE) to assess within-person associations, and cross-lagged structural equation modeling (SEM) to exploratorily examine temporal ordering and indirect pathways. FE estimates suggest that moderate engagement with short videos is linked to lower subsequent levels of depressive symptoms, whereas habitual daily use shows no direct within-person association. Exploratory SEM analyses further indicate patterns consistent with indirect pathways: moderate watching is correlated with higher physical activity, which in turn is linked to lower depression; meanwhile, daily watching is correlated with later sleep timing, which is associated with higher depressive symptoms. Smoking did not show a significant mediating role. These indirect effect analyses are constrained by the two-wave design and reliance on frequency-based measures, and should be interpreted as identifying plausible associations rather than establishing causal mediation. The findings underscore the importance of distinguishing patterns of use and the need for more nuanced measurement in research on youth digital engagement and mental health.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY-NC).
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