{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,21]],"date-time":"2026-08-21T04:25:40Z","timestamp":1787286340619,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":60,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787097600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behav. Sci.","Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Excessive short-video consumption is a global concern, yet its association with mental health among vocational high school students in China remains under-researched. Among many candidate individual, psychological, and behavioral factors, it remains unclear which are the most robust predictors of mental health. This study develops a comprehensive framework to identify core predictors and examine potential pathways linking short-video use to mental health. A survey was administered to 8346 vocational high school students recruited from vocational high schools in Tianjin, China, yielding 6096 valid responses for multi-stage analysis. First, Random Forest (RF) and linear Support Vector Regression (SVR) screened 13 individual, psychological, and behavioral features to identify core predictors. Subsequently, a Path Analysis (PA) with the Bootstrap method was used to examine statistical mediating pathways involving these core features. Across RF and SVR, social support, excessive short-video use, positive coping, and negative coping emerged as the four most important predictors of mental health. PA showed generally good fit (\u03c72\/df = 5.86, CFI = 0.998, TLI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.03, SRMR = 0.01). Excessive short-video use was significantly and directly associated with mental health problems (effect = 0.221, 95% CI = [0.189, 0.253], 76.7% of the total association) and showed small indirect associations through three statistical pathways: (1) lower social support (effect = 0.023, 8.1%); (2) higher negative coping (effect = 0.035, 12.0%); and (3) a small serial indirect association from reduced social support to decreased positive coping (effect = 0.007, 2.6%). Findings suggest that potential intervention efforts may consider regulating short-video use while simultaneously enhancing social support and adaptive coping mechanisms as part of strategies to reduce psychological risks.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16081429","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]],"date-time":"2026-08-19T13:14:01Z","timestamp":1787145241000},"page":"1429","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Associations and Potential Pathways Linking Excessive Short-Video Use to Mental Health Among Vocational High School Students in China: An Integrated Analysis Based on Machine Learning and Path Analysis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Qihan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China"},{"name":"Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Baidong","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hongwen","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"217","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cpr.2009.11.004","article-title":"Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review","volume":"30","author":"Aldao","year":"2010","journal-title":"Clinical Psychology Review"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1925","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2020.1749698","article-title":"Social isolation, social support and their relationship with smartphone addiction","volume":"24","year":"2021","journal-title":"Information, Communication & Society"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Arouch, S., da Silva, K., Edgcumbe, D., and Pezaro, S. 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