Short-form video addiction and loneliness among college students: The longitudinal mediating role of social anxiety in a three-wave cross-lagged panel study

Background Although short-form video platforms have become a major form of entertainment and social engagement among college students, excessive use of these platforms has raised increasing concerns regarding potential psychological consequences. Loneliness and social anxiety are commonly considered risk factors for problematic media use; however, their longitudinal and reciprocal relationships with short-form video addiction remain insufficiently understood. The present study employed a three-wave longitudinal design to examine the dynamic associations among loneliness, social anxiety, and short-form video addiction among college students, with particular attention to the longitudinal mediating role of social anxiety. Methods A total of 360 college students who completed all three waves of the survey were included in the final analysis. Data were collected at three time points with six-month intervals. Loneliness, social anxiety, and short-form video addiction were assessed using validated self-report scales. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and reliability analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0. A cross-lagged panel model was constructed using Mplus 8.3 to examine the temporal predictive relationships among the three variables, and bootstrap analyses were further used to test the longitudinal indirect effects of social anxiety. Results Loneliness, social anxiety, and short-form video addiction showed significant cross-time stability, and the three variables were positively correlated within each wave. Cross-lagged analyses revealed a significant bidirectional relationship between loneliness and short-form video addiction from T1 to T2, whereas these predictive effects weakened from T2 to T3. Further mediation analyses showed that social anxiety played a significant longitudinal mediating role in the reciprocal relationship between loneliness and short-form video addiction. Specifically, both the compensatory pathway from loneliness to social anxiety and subsequently to short-form video addiction and the social deterioration pathway from short-form video addiction to social anxiety and subsequently to loneliness were significant. Moreover, the indirect effect of the social deterioration pathway was stronger than that of the compensatory pathway. Conclusions The findings reveal a dynamic and asymmetric mechanism linking loneliness, social anxiety, and short-form video addiction among college students. Short-form video addiction may not merely serve as a compensatory response to loneliness but may also exacerbate loneliness by increasing social anxiety and impairing real-life social functioning. These findings provide empirical evidence for the prevention of problematic short-form video use and highlight the importance of addressing social anxiety in interventions aimed at reducing loneliness and maladaptive media use among college students.