Loneliness and Social Withdrawal Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Internet Addiction and the Moderating Effect of Sex.
While loneliness is a known correlate of social withdrawal, the underlying mechanisms, particularly within college student populations, remain inadequately understood. This study addresses this gap by investigating the mediating role of internet addiction and the moderating role of sex in the relati...
| Publicado en: | Adolescents (2673-7051) Vol. 5; no. 4; pp. 51 - 66 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=190569412&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 190569412 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 26737051 N5G1 jtl: Adolescents (2673-7051) issn: 26737051 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 5 iid: 4 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 190569412 190569412 190569412 10.3390/adolescents5040051 190569412 ppf: 51 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Loneliness and Social Withdrawal Among College Students: The Mediating Role of Internet Addiction and the Moderating Effect of Sex. aug: au: Zhou, Xunni Amran, Muhammad Syawal Surat, Shahlan Yin, Hao affil: Faculty of Education, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Malaysia sug: subj: Sex Factors Internet Addiction Complications Loneliness Social Isolation Evaluation Students, College Psychosocial Factors Students, Undergraduate Psychosocial Factors Human Cross Sectional Studies Surveys China Theory Path Analysis Mediation Analysis Simple Random Sample Convenience Sample Software Questionnaires Adolescence Adult Male Female Descriptive Statistics Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Data Analysis Software Structural Equation Modeling Confidence Intervals Adolescent: 13-18 years Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: While loneliness is a known correlate of social withdrawal, the underlying mechanisms, particularly within college student populations, remain inadequately understood. This study addresses this gap by investigating the mediating role of internet addiction and the moderating role of sex in the relationship between loneliness and social withdrawal. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1978 Chinese college students. Analyses were performed using SEM (AMOS) and the PROCESS for SPSS to test a moderated mediation model. Results confirmed a significant positive association between loneliness and social withdrawal. Internet addiction was found to significantly mediate this relationship, explaining 50.7% of the total effect. Moreover, sex moderated the indirect pathway, suggesting that the strength of the mediating effect varied by sex. These findings provide empirical support for the Evolutionary Theory of Loneliness by elucidating the psychological processes linking loneliness to social withdrawal within a collectivist cultural context. The study also offers practical implications for developing targeted mental health interventions to reduce social withdrawal and promote social participation among college students. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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