Associations between parental marital conflict and short-video addiction among Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional chain mediation analysis of experiential avoidance and anxiety

This cross-sectional study examined the association between parental marital conflict and short-video addiction among adolescents and assessed indirect associations involving experiential avoidance and anxiety. The Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 Scale, and Short-Video Addiction Scale were administered to 4,065 adolescents from six schools across five provinces in China. PROCESS Model 6 and 5,000 bootstrap resamples were used to test the mediation effects. (1) Parental marital conflict, experiential avoidance, anxiety, and short-video addiction were significantly and positively correlated with one another (r = 0.280 - 0.553, p < 0.001). (2) The direct association between parental marital conflict and adolescent short-video addiction remained significant after the mediators were included in the model (β = 0.088, p < 0.001). (3) Experiential avoidance and anxiety independently mediated the association between parental marital conflict and short-video addiction and also formed a significant chain mediation pathway through experiential avoidance followed by anxiety. The total indirect effect accounted for 67.16% of the total effect. The results indicate that parental marital conflict was associated with short-video addiction both directly and indirectly through experiential avoidance, anxiety, and the prespecified chain pathway from experiential avoidance to anxiety. The findings broaden the evidence on family and emotional correlates of short-video addiction and highlight the relevance of supportive family relationships, emotion-regulation skills, media literacy, and adolescent psychological well-being.