Researchers followed over 2,600 Chinese high school students for a year to study the relationship between social networking addiction and non-suicidal self-injury. The study looked at how these behaviors might influence each other over time and whether psychological resilience could change that connection.
The study found that social networking addiction and non-suicidal self-injury had a significant, positive, and reciprocal relationship. This means each behavior predicted increases in the other over the 12-month period. The effect sizes were small but consistent.
A key finding was that resilience moderated this pathway. For students with low resilience, the link from social networking addiction to self-injury was strong. For those with high resilience, this link became non-significant, suggesting resilience acts as a protective buffer.
The study was observational and focused on a specific group, so it cannot prove cause and effect. The main reason to be careful is that the results show associations, not that one behavior directly causes the other. Realistically, this suggests that building resilience could be a helpful part of prevention strategies for teens.