Shared Central Symptoms but Distinct Age-Specific Patterns in Problematic Short Video Use: Evidence from a Network Analysis Across Early, Middle, and Late Adolescence

Short video platforms have become immensely popular among adolescents. Adolescence is a crucial developmental period with distinct stages (early, middle, late); each stage is influenced by unique psychological, physiological, and social dynamics. While prior studies primarily focus on negative impacts of problematic short video use (PSVU) on adolescents, the age-specific characteristics of PSVU remain obscure, which is important for effective prevention and intervention. This study utilized network analysis to investigate the central symptoms and network structure of PSVU across early, middle, and late adolescence. The data were collected from a large sample of 48,489 adolescents using a modified 6-item Facebook addiction scale. Results indicated that tolerance and withdrawal were consistently among the most central symptoms across all adolescent stages, with tolerance showing the highest centrality overall. Furthermore, a distinct third central symptom emerged for each stage: salience in early, mood change in middle, and conflict in late adolescence. Global network strength increased from early to middle adolescence and again from middle to late adolescence, suggesting a deepening of addictive patterns with age. The significant age-specific differences in symptom connectivity were also identified. This study provides the first network analysis of PSVU across distinct adolescent developmental stages. The tolerance and withdrawal emerged as the common top two central symptoms across the distinct adolescent developmental stages, indicating that PSVU operates consistently within existing behavioral addiction frameworks, functioning as a specific and highly immersive manifestation of problematic Internet use. Meanwhile, unique age-specific characteristics throughout adolescence underscore the necessity of tailoring prevention and intervention strategies for the specific developmental phase of adolescents.