Physical activity and social media addiction: a multi-mediation analysis

Background and objectives Physical activity levels are closely related to social media addiction among college students. However, the specific psychological mechanisms by which physical activity affects social media addiction remain to be further clarified. This study aims to introduce psychological resilience and negative emotional factors such as anxiety, depression, and stress to construct a chain-mediation model, systematically exploring the psychological mechanisms between physical activity and social media addiction among college students. The goal is to provide a more detailed theoretical explanation for understanding the protective effect of positive behaviors on problematic media use. Methods In 2025, a self-report questionnaire survey was conducted among 2,033 university students (882 males and 1,151 females; mean age = 18.97 ± 1.13) using a convenience sampling approach. A cross-sectional design was employed to assess six core variables: anxiety, depression, stress, psychological resilience, physical activity, and social media addiction. Pearson correlation analysis was followed by mediation analysis using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Results Physical activity was significantly negatively associated with social media addiction (β = −0.117, p 0.001), and this effect remained significant after including mediators (β = −0.068, p 0.001). Physical activity was negatively correlated with anxiety (β = −0.054, p 0.05) and depression (β = −0.077, p 0.001), and positively correlated with psychological resilience (β = 0.132, p 0.001). Psychological resilience, in turn, was negatively associated with anxiety (β = −0.271), stress (β = −0.178), depression (β = −0.259), and social media addiction (β = −0.080; all p 0.001). Anxiety (β = 0.224), stress (β = 0.102), and depression (β = 0.114) were each positively related to social media addiction ( p 0.001). Conclusion This study clarifies the psychological pathways linking Physical activity to social media addiction. The results suggest that psychological resilience, along with anxiety, depression, and stress, plays a key mediating role in this association. These findings underscore the importance of integrating positive lifestyle behaviors and core psychological resources into analytical frameworks, thereby providing valuable insights into the developmental pathways of social media addiction among university students and informing more targeted and effective intervention strategies.