ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1701164
Explore the mechanism of short-form videos addiction among college students: A socio-technical and attachment perspective
Provisionally accepted
Lianlian LIU1
Chenze XIE2*- 1Anhui Academy of Social Sciences, Hefei, China
- 2School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China
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Background: The growing prevalence of short-form video platforms has raised increasing concerns about addiction among college students. Understanding the socio-technical and psychological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon is crucial for developing effective interventions. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the influencing factors and underlying mechanisms of short-form video addiction among college students by integrating a socio-technical perspective with attachment theory. Specifically, it examines the distinct roles of emotional and functional attachment and the pathways through which social and technological factors contribute to addiction. Methods: A theoretical model was developed and tested using survey data collected from 399 college students who regularly use short-form video applications. The proposed hypotheses were examined through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Results: The findings show that emotional attachment has a significant positive effect on short-form videos addiction, whereas functional attachment exerts no direct effect. Instead, it indirectly contributes to addiction through its positive influence on emotional attachment. Social isolation, social interaction anxiety, and escapism significantly and positively predict emotional attachment. Information support and personalized recommendations are found to have a significant positive effect on functional attachment, whereas system quality does not exhibit a statistically significant impact. Conclusion: This study highlights the distinct roles of emotional and functional attachment in shaping short-form video addiction among college students. By revealing the pathways through which socio-technical factors foster attachment and subsequent addiction, it provides a multidimensional empirical foundation for understanding this behavioral phenomenon and offers insights for designing more effective preventive and intervention strategies.
Keywords: short-form videos addiction, Socio-technical approach, college students, Functional attachment, Emotional attachment
Received: 08 Sep 2025; Accepted: 23 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LIU and XIE. 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: Chenze XIE, xiechenze99@163.com
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