Bidirectional Mediating Effects between Problematic Internet Use and Obesity-Related Eating Behavior on College Students’ Sub-Health Status: A Cross-lagged Panel Analysis

Fangjie Dong, Yuqian Deng, Yuqiu Chen and Yibo Wu ()
Additional contact information
Fangjie Dong: Chongqing University
Yuqian Deng: Central South University
Yuqiu Chen: Sun Yat-Sen University
Yibo Wu: Peking University

Applied Research in Quality of Life, 2025, vol. 20, issue 4, No 2, 1399-1417

Abstract: Abstract Previous studies have primarily explored binary relationships between problematic internet use (PIU), obesity-related eating behavior (OEB), and sub-health status (SHS) using cross-sectional designs, leaving gaps in understanding their dynamic interactions and developmental trajectories. Using two-wave longitudinal data (2022 & 2024) from 3,609 Chinese college students, this study employed cross-lagged panel model to examine bidirectional relationships between PIU and OEB, and half-longitudinal mediation models to explore their underlying mechanisms affecting SHS. The findings revealed that OEB significantly predicted subsequent PIU, while PIU showed no significant delayed effect on OEB. Half-longitudinal mediation analysis demonstrated that PIU contributed to SHS through its immediate positive effect on concurrent OEB, while OEB increased SHS through its positive effect on subsequent PIU. This study reveals the complex temporal dynamics between PIU and OEB, demonstrating a negative spiral pattern where these behaviors mutually reinforce each other, and highlighting their synergistic effects on college students’ SHS through bidirectional mediating pathways. These findings suggest that preventing and improving SHS requires simultaneous intervention in both PIU and OEB rather than treating them as isolated issues.

Keywords: Problematic internet use; Sub-health status; Eating behavior; College students; Longitudinal study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11482-025-10464-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ariqol:v:20:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s11482-025-10464-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11482

DOI: 10.1007/s11482-025-10464-8

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Research in Quality of Life is currently edited by Daniel Shek

More articles in Applied Research in Quality of Life from Springer, International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().