Associations Between Loneliness, Cyberloafing, and Digital Stress in College Students: Evidence From Profile and Network Analyses

This study examined the associations among loneliness, cyberloafing, and digital stress among Chinese college students. Drawing on data collected from 1,431 students via self-report questionnaires including the Cyberloafing Scale, the Digital Stress Scale, and the Loneliness Scale, we employed latent profile analysis to identify profiles of loneliness, followed by profile-specific network analyses and network comparison tests to examine the organization of cyberloafing and digital stress across loneliness profiles. Three loneliness profiles emerged: low-loneliness, companionship-deficit, and high-loneliness. Fear of missing out showed relatively high strength centrality across the three networks, whereas connection overload was particularly prominent in the low-loneliness and companionship-deficit networks. Active cyberloafing consistently showed the highest bridge strength between the cyberloafing and digital-stress communities. Together, these findings highlight variation in the organization of cyberloafing and digital stress across loneliness profiles and demonstrate the value of integrating person-centered and network approaches to understand college students’ digital experiences.