ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Mindfulness
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1579509
This article is part of the Research TopicApplications of Mindfulness in Media and Communication StudiesView all 10 articles
The Impact of Multidimensional Excessive Social Media Use on Academic Performance: The Moderating Role of Mindfulness
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Media and Communication, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, China
- 2School of Film and Media, Guangxi Arts University, Nanning, Guangx, China
- 3School of Journalism and Culture Communication, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China
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Introduction: This study investigates the negative impact of excessive social media use among college students on learning burnout and academic performance, categorizing excessive use into three types: excessive social, excessive hedonic, and excessive cognitive. Based on the SSO (Stressor-Strain-Outcome) framework, the research examines the effects of these three types of excessive use on learning burnout and academic performance. It further explores the mediating role of learning burnout and the moderating effects of mindfulness in mitigating these negative outcomes.Method: A total of 532 valid responses were collected via an online survey using standardized selfreport measures to assess excessive social media use, learning burnout, academic performance, and mindfulness. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 for descriptive statistics and moderation analysis, while AMOS 26.0 was employed for structural equation modeling and mediation testing.Results: Excessive social and hedonic use significantly increased learning burnout, while excessive cognitive use reduced it. Learning burnout negatively impacted academic performance and mediated the effects of all three types of social media use. Mindfulness moderated these relationships, weakening the adverse effects of excessive social media use.The study reveals distinct effects of different types of excessive social media use on learning burnout and academic performance, underscoring the protective role of mindfulness. These findings offer valuable insights for developing interventions to enhance academic performance among college students.
Keywords: Excessive social media use, learning burnout, academic performance, mindfulness, Moderating effect
Received: 19 Feb 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Qi and Zhang. 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: Wen Zhang, School of Journalism and Culture Communication, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, 430073, Hubei Province, China
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