ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1629818
Negative life events and Internet addiction among college students: role of physical exercise and prosocial behavior
Provisionally accepted
- 1Physical Education College, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
- 2Sports Science Research Center, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
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This study investigates the relationship between negative life events and Internet addiction, as well as the mediating role of prosocial behavior and the moderating role of physical exercise in this process among Chinese college students. Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory and Stress Coping Theory, we constructed a moderated mediation model to analyze the psychological mechanisms underlying students' Internet addiction. A total of 259 undergraduate students from six universities in Shanghai participated in this study. The results reveal that prosocial behavior significantly mediates the relationship between negative life events and Internet addiction. Moreover, physical exercise at varying levels appears to exert differential moderating effects on the relationship between negative life events, prosocial behavior, and Internet addiction. These findings underscore the importance of promoting prosocial behavior and appropriate levels of physical exercise to mitigate the risk of Internet addiction risk among college populations.
Keywords: Internet addiction, Negative life events, Prosocial Behavior, physical exercise, college students
Received: 19 May 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huang, Li, Wang and Liu. 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:
Jiangyu Wang, Physical Education College, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
Bing Liu, Physical Education College, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China
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