Associative pathways of school bullying with adolescent internet addiction and the moderating role of emotional resilience

Objective This study explores the associative pathways between school bullying and adolescent internet addiction among middle school students in Jingzhou City, as well as the potential associative pattern of emotional resilience. It aims to clarify the psychological correlation pathways underlying the association between school bullying and internet addiction, examine the multivariate correlational pattern of these variables, and further discuss the practical value of emotional resilience for targeted preventive intervention. Methods This study recruited 19, 601 adolescents from 22 middle schools in Jingzhou District in 2025 using a cluster sampling design. Data were collected using a self-designed general demographic questionnaire together with standardized scales, including the School Bullying Scale, Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Emotional Resilience Questionnaire (ERQ). All data were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and Process 5.0 macro program, adopting descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multicollinearity test, regression analysis, mediation and moderation analysis, as well as robustness analysis. Results A total of 20, 225 questionnaires were distributed, and 19, 601 valid responses were finally included, yielding an effective response rate of 96.91%. Significant positive correlations were observed between school bullying and adolescent internet addiction. Serial and independent indirect associative pathways were identified: the serial pathway of school bullying→anxiety→depression→internet addiction, and two independent indirect links of school bullying→anxiety→internet addiction and school bullying→depression→internet addiction. Emotional resilience showed a moderating correlation in such pathways, with higher emotional resilience linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression, and further correlated with a lower tendency toward internet addiction. Robustness analyses supported the stability of these observed associative patterns. Conclusion School bullying is closely correlated with anxiety, depression, insomnia and internet addiction in adolescents. Emotional resilience is negatively correlated with these negative emotional and behavioral outcomes. This study clarifies the statistical associative pathways between school bullying and adolescent internet addiction, and indicates that higher emotional resilience is correlated with a weaker associative tendency between school bullying and internet addiction. All findings are supported by robustness checks.