{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T06:01:58Z","timestamp":1789970518051,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":47,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789948800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>Social media platforms increasingly support course communication, peer collaboration, and academic information exchange within university learning. In China, these activities are frequently embedded in WeChat-centered communication streams characterized by persistent connectivity, fragmented information sharing, and overlap between academic and personal communication. Drawing on cognitive load theory, control-value theory, and social cognitive theory, this study examined how platform-based academic interaction was associated with self-regulated learning through information overload, perceived control, and information anxiety. Survey data were collected from 846 Chinese university students, of whom 98.5% reported using WeChat for academic purposes and 91.7% identified WeChat as their primary academic communication platform. Structural equation modeling indicated a positive direct association between platform-based academic interaction and self-regulated learning, while the estimated indirect associations involving information overload, perceived control, and information anxiety were negative and larger in absolute magnitude, yielding a negative estimated total association. Higher perceived information literacy was associated with a weaker positive relationship between information overload and information anxiety, whereas higher learning self-efficacy was associated with a weaker negative relationship between information anxiety and self-regulated learning. The information overload to information anxiety association differed across academic stages and was strongest among master\u2019s students. These findings identify information-processing demand, regulatory appraisal, and information-related anxiety as distinct processes associated with self-regulated learning in a WeChat-centered social media environment. The cross-sectional self-report design limits temporal and causal inference.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1893472","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:35:49Z","timestamp":1789968949000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Platform-based academic interaction and self-regulated learning in a WeChat-centered social media environment: information overload, perceived control, and information anxiety"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Lingyun","family":"Gao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, Beijing Institute of Technology","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Feng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Education, Beijing Institute of Technology","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"224","DOI":"10.1177\/0961000618790312","article-title":"Students\u2019 information literacy self-efficacy: an exploratory study","volume":"52","author":"Aharony","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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