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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Addictive Disorders

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1698824

Perceived Social Support, Insomnia, and Psychological Resilience: A Chain Mediation Model of Internet Addiction in Civil Aviation Cadets

Provisionally accepted
Bochuan  ZhaoBochuan Zhao1Haining  XuHaining Xu1Mingyu  LiaoMingyu Liao2Xinan  ZhangXinan Zhang1*Yongtao  YanYongtao Yan3*Yuqi  SuYuqi Su4
  • 1School of Physical Education and Health, Guilin University, Guilin 541006, Guangxi, China, Guilin, China
  • 2Department of Physical Training, Institute of Aviation Safety and Security, China Civil Aviation Flight Academy, Chengdu, China, Chengdu, China
  • 3Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, China
  • 4Guilin No. 2 Technical School, Guilin 541002, Guangxi, China, guilin, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Purpose: Based on the stress-vulnerability model and protective-risk model, this study examines the mechanism by which perceived social support affects internet addiction among civil aviation flight cadets, focusing on testing the chain mediating role of insomnia and psychological resilience. Methods: Using a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, 1218 flight cadets (mean age approximately 18.8 years) were recruited through convenience sampling from a civil aviation flight college in China. Participants completed the Perceived Social Support Scale (PSS), Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Chinese Internet Addiction Scale-Revised (CIAS-R). Chain mediation analysis was performed using SPSS PROCESS macro Model 6 (Bootstrap resampling 5000 times, 95% confidence interval). Results: Significant correlations were found between all pairs of variables: perceived social support, insomnia, psychological resilience, and internet addiction (p < 0.01). Perceived social support was significantly negatively correlated with internet addiction (r=-0.34) and insomnia (r=-0.26), while significantly positively correlated with psychological resilience (r=0.65); insomnia was significantly positively correlated with internet addiction (r=0.30); psychological resilience was significantly negatively correlated with internet addiction (r=-0.44). Internet Addiction Among Flight Cadets Chain mediation analysis showed that perceived social support not only directly negatively predicted flight cadets' internet addiction but also had indirect effects through insomnia and psychological resilience: on one hand, perceived social support indirectly reduced internet addiction by decreasing insomnia (r=-0.05); on the other hand, perceived social support indirectly reduced internet addiction by increasing psychological resilience (r=-0.21); additionally, perceived social support indirectly affected internet addiction through the chain mediating path of first reducing insomnia and then increasing psychological resilience (r=-0.01), and although the effect size of this chain mediation was small, it reached a significant level. Conclusion: Perceived social support has a significant inhibitory effect on internet addiction among civil aviation flight cadets, with insomnia and psychological resilience playing a partial chain mediating role. Enhancing flight cadets' social support, improving their sleep status, and strengthening psychological resilience may alleviate the risk of internet addiction.

Keywords: perceived social support, insomnia, psychological resilience, internetaddiction, chain mediation

Received: 04 Sep 2025; Accepted: 21 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Xu, Liao, Zhang, Yan and Su. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Xinan Zhang, dsds2021043@163.com
Yongtao Yan, sunbird@szpu.edu.cn

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