A Cross-Sectional Association Between Screen-Based Sedentary Behavior and Anxiety in Academic College Students: Mediating Role of Negative Emotions and Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation

PURPOSE: The study aims to explore the relationship and potential mechanisms between screen time and anxiety and have a clear understanding of the role of negative emotions and emotion regulation, thus providing guidance for Chinese college students to improve mental health. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey by selecting 1721 academic college students from 6 colleges and universities in 5 provinces in China, and the data were analyzed through the Process program of SPSS for mediating effect and moderating effect. RESULTS: There is a significant positive relationship between screen time and anxiety, negative emotions play a mediating role between the two (indirect effect = 0.32, p < 0.001), mediating effect accounts for 59.88% of the total effect, and emotion regulation regulates the direct relationship between screen time and anxiety (interaction effect = 0.027, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study sheds light on the potential mechanisms by which screen time affects anxiety in academic college students, providing a fresh perspective on anxiety reduction. Screen time positively affects anxiety levels, where negative emotions have a mediating role and emotion regulation has a moderating role. In the future, we can control screen ++time, increase physical activities, reduce negative emotions, and improve the emotional regulation ability to relieve anxiety, so as to improve the mental health of academic college students, and expect to have a positive impact on future learning, life, and planning.