In today’s digital landscape, the omnipresence of short-form videos is undeniable. From TikTok to Instagram Reels, these brief, highly engaging snippets of content flood our social media feeds, captivating users with their rapid pace and richly informative nature. Neuroscientific insights reveal that repeated exposure to such stimuli triggers reward pathways in the brain, fostering a sense of immediate gratification and pleasure. While these videos provide entertainment and instant dopamine boosts, this design also paves the way for behavioral addiction—specifically, short video addiction (SVA). SVA constitutes a compulsive pattern where individuals struggle to regulate their consumption, often at the expense of personal productivity and psychological health.
This emerging behavioral concern has attracted scholarly attention, culminating in a recent investigative study conducted in China. Researchers there explored the intricate psychological factors that predispose individuals to develop SVA, focusing particularly on the construct of attachment anxiety. Attachment anxiety is a relational disposition marked by pervasive fears of abandonment, usually originating from early developmental interactions with primary caregivers. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, offers pioneering insights into how these deep-seated emotional patterns interplay with cognitive controls and emotional awareness to influence addictive video consumption.
Haodong Su, the study’s principal author and a lecturer at Anhui Science and Technology University’s College of Humanities, articulates that individuals exhibiting pronounced attachment anxiety demonstrate a significantly elevated risk of succumbing to SVA. The research attributes this vulnerability in part to deficiencies in attentional control—the cognitive faculty that allows individuals to selectively focus and inhibit distractions—as well as challenges in deciphering and articulating emotions, known clinically as alexithymia. This dual impairment in emotional and cognitive mechanisms provides a fertile ground for maladaptive behavioral patterns to emerge.
The methodology was robust, involving 342 university students aged between 18 and 22, assessed through validated psychometric scales to quantify levels of short video addiction, attachment anxiety, attentional control, and alexithymic traits. The choice of this demographics underscores a critical period wherein individuals face heightened emotional and cognitive development demands, often coupled with external stressors that can exacerbate vulnerabilities. Prior studies have suggested that alexithymia is relatively prevalent during such life stages, potentially intensifying susceptibility to addictive behaviors as a compensatory emotional regulation strategy.
Findings illuminate that attachment anxiety correlates positively with SVA. More incisively, the interplay between attentional control and alexithymia serves as a mediating pathway. Individuals suffering from heightened attachment anxiety are more likely to have compromised attentional control, which diminishes their ability to regulate incoming sensory information, leading to increased dissociation or avoidance behaviors. Concurrently, these individuals often exhibit augmented alexithymic tendencies, impairing their emotional processing and expression capabilities. This confluence precipitates an overreliance on external stimuli—namely, short videos—as affective escape mechanisms.
According to Su, “Individuals with more severe alexithymic symptoms showed significantly higher levels of SVA, indicating that having difficulties with identifying and expressing emotions may increase reliance on short videos as a form of emotional escape.” This assertion underscores the compensatory role that short video consumption plays for those struggling with emotional awareness, as these videos offer immediate emotional relief without requiring internal emotional processing.
Notably, poorer attentional control not only exacerbates alexithymia but also potentiates the relationship between attachment anxiety and SVA. This nuanced finding indicates a cascading effect wherein deficits in one cognitive domain amplify vulnerabilities in emotional regulation, consequently heightening addiction risk. Such insights emphasize the complex, layered nature of behavioral addictions and urge a multidimensional approach to understanding and intervention.
While the study primarily identifies risk factors, it also suggests effective protective mechanisms. Enhancing attentional control through targeted cognitive training can serve as a buffer against impulsive and addictive tendencies linked to short video consumption. Su highlights that young individuals capable of sustaining focused attention exhibit increased resilience, even when confronted with emotional difficulties like attachment anxiety. This is a crucial finding for designing prevention programs that move beyond merely restricting screen time.
Practical recommendations emerging from the research include instituting time management techniques, such as setting strict boundaries on daily video consumption and designating intervals free from digital devices. Moreover, cultivating mindfulness practices and reflective exercises targeting emotional awareness can equip young adults with enhanced emotional regulation skills. These strategies aim not only to counter digital compulsions but also to remediate underlying emotional and cognitive vulnerabilities.
“Attentional control is not a fixed ability and can be improved with practice,” Su asserts. Interventions such as mindfulness meditation, reduction of multitasking behaviors, and intentional scheduling of concentration-focused tasks may significantly reinforce cognitive control networks and reduce susceptibility to SVA. These approaches reflect a paradigm shift from punitive digital avoidance to empowering self-regulation and cognitive resilience.
However, the research acknowledges important limitations inherent in the study’s design. The data relied on self-reports, which may introduce response biases, and the cross-sectional nature restricts causal inference, offering a snapshot rather than developmental trajectories. Additionally, the study’s sample was skewed, with approximately 72% male participants, which raises questions about the generalizability of findings across genders given known gender differences in attachment and attentional capacities. Future investigations with balanced and longitudinal designs are vital to validate and expand upon these results.
In conclusion, this research breaks new ground in unraveling the psychological anatomy of short video addiction, highlighting the pivotal roles of attachment anxiety, attentional control, and alexithymia. It advocates for holistic preventive frameworks that prioritize the strengthening of emotional awareness and cognitive control rather than sole reliance on limiting technology use. As digital environments continue evolving, an in-depth understanding of these emotional and cognitive underpinnings becomes crucial to mitigating addictive behaviors and fostering healthier media consumption patterns.
The study invites a broader conversation on how addictive digital content intersects with fundamental psychological processes. It underscores that combating technology-related addictions demands nuanced, multifaceted approaches that integrate insights from attachment theory, cognitive neuroscience, and affective science. Only by addressing the underlying emotional dysregulations and cognitive challenges can effective and sustainable solutions to short video addiction be realized.
Subject of Research: Psychological mechanisms contributing to short video addiction, specifically the roles of attachment anxiety, attentional control, and alexithymia.
Article Title: From Attachment Anxiety to Short Video Addiction: The Roles of Attentional Control and Alexithymia
News Publication Date: 26-Mar-2026
Web References:
10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1764536
Keywords: short video addiction, attachment anxiety, attentional control, alexithymia, emotional regulation, cognitive control, behavioral addiction, digital media, young adults, mindfulness, emotion processing, compulsive behavior
