The Masking Effect of Rumination on the Relationship Between Short-Video Addiction and Sleep Quality among College Students: A Generalized Mediation Analysis

Objective: The impact of short video addiction on sleep quality among college students has been debated, yet the cognitive mechanisms remain obscure, and the mediating function of rumination is yet to be validated. Methods: According to the response style theory, this research recruited 103 college students as subjects and employed the short video addiction scale, rumination scale, and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to examine the mediating effect via the bootstrap method. Results: Short video addiction showed a highly positive association with rumination (r=0.379), whereas rumination exhibited a similarly robust positive association with sleep quality (r=0.300), where the indirect impact was manifest (effect value 0.0237, 95% CI excluding 0), whereas the direct impact was not significant, suggesting that rumination performed a complete intermediary function (masking effect). Conclusion: Short video addiction indirectly deteriorates sleep quality via inducing rumination, uncovering the underlying pathway of "behavior → cognition → physiology", and offering cognitive targets for psychological intervention within universities.