Autonomous Motivation, Lying-Flat Mindset, and Social Networking Addiction among Chinese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Study

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-766-8_46How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Autonomous motivation; Lying-flat mindset; Social networking addiction; Chinese university students; Self-determination theory; Cross-sectional mediation

Abstract

Social networking platforms are embedded in university students’ academic, social, and leisure routines, but poorly regulated use may develop into social networking addiction. Drawing on self-determination theory and the components model of behavioral addiction, this cross-sectional study examined whether lying-flat mindset statistically mediated the association between autonomous motivation and social networking addiction among Chinese university students. A total of 850 students from three universities completed measures of academic motivation, lying-flat tendency, and social networking addiction. Autonomous motivation was negatively associated with both social networking addiction and lying-flat mindset, whereas lying-flat mindset was positively associated with social networking addiction. After controlling for age, gender, grade, university, and major type, bootstrap mediation analysis showed a significant indirect association through lying-flat mindset, with an indirect effect of -0.109 and a 95% confidence interval from -0.138 to -0.083, accounting for 26.0% of the total effect. A single-common-factor confirmatory factor analysis suggested that serious common method bias was unlikely, but the self-report design still leaves possible social desirability bias and measurement error. The findings should therefore be interpreted as statistical associations rather than causal mediation. The study links motivational regulation with a culturally salient passive achievement mindset and suggests implications for motivation education, value clarification, and digital behavior support in higher education.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jing Tian
AU  - Yousong Hu
AU  - Yaxin Xiao
AU  - Ya Ma
AU  - Letong Gao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/04
TI  - Autonomous Motivation, Lying-Flat Mindset, and Social Networking Addiction among Chinese University Students: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Study
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 6th International Conference on Education, Information Management and Service Science  (EIMSS 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 439
EP  - 449
SN  - 2589-4900
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-766-8_46
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-766-8_46
ID  - Tian2026
ER  -