Open Access

ARTICLE

Digital Stress and Self-Regulated Disconnection Behaviors in Adolescent Social Media Use: The Moderating Role of Psychological Resilience

Zhibo Zhou^1,#, Jie Yao^2,#, Yuwei Wang^1,*, Chu Chu³
1 School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
2 School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China
3 School of Journalism, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
* Corresponding Author: Yuwei Wang. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Adolescence in Contemporary Times: Risks, Resilience and Mental Health)

International Journal of Mental Health Promotion https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2026.086439

Received 30 May 2026; Accepted 07 August 2026; Published online 28 August 2026

Abstract

Background: Adolescents’ intensive engagement with social media may expose them to multiple forms of digital stress, yet less is known about how such stress is associated with their efforts to regulate or reduce digital media use. This study aimed to examine the relationships among social media use intensity, multidimensional digital stress, psychological resilience, and self-regulated digital disconnection behaviors among Chinese adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 686 adolescents aged 13–18 years in China. Social media use intensity, digital stress, digital disconnection, and psychological resilience were measured and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Results: Social media use intensity was positively associated with all five dimensions of digital stress, including availability stress (β = 0.595, p < 0.001), approval anxiety (β = 0.554, p < 0.001), FoMO (β = 0.519, p < 0.001), connection overload (β = 0.389, p < 0.001), and online vigilance (β = 0.551, p < 0.001). However, it was not directly associated with either rule-based (β = −0.069, p = 0.08) or feature-based disconnection (β = −0.024, p = 0.50). Several dimensions of digital stress showed significant indirect associations between social media use intensity and digital disconnection behaviors. Availability stress and connection overload were particularly important pathways. Psychological resilience moderated several stress-related pathways. Conclusions: The findings suggest that adolescents’ digital disconnection behaviors are better understood as stress-related self-regulatory strategies rather than as direct consequences of social media use intensity alone. The study highlights the need to distinguish between the amount of social media use and the subjective digital burden experienced by adolescents.

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Keywords

Social media use intensity; digital stress; digital disconnection behavior; psychological resilience; continuous immediacy; reactive overload

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