Based on the experiential avoidance model, the current study aims to test the relationship between cyber-ostracism and adolescents’ non-suicidal self-injury and to explore the mediating roles of depression and experiential avoidance. A sample of 1062 middle school students completed questionnaires on cyber-ostracism, depression, experiential avoidance, and self-injurious behavior. The results showed that cyber-ostracism, depression, experiential avoidance, and non-suicidal self-injury were positively correlated with each other. After controlling for gender and age, the mediation model test shows that cyber-ostracism was significantly and positively associated with non-suicidal self-injury. Depression and experiential avoidance mediated the relationship between cyber-ostracism and non-suicidal self-injury parallelly and sequentially. This study highlights the potential mechanisms of action between cyber-ostracism and adolescent non-suicidal self-injury and finds that cyber-ostracism is a risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury. This founding suggests that extra attention should be paid to the role of the online environment in addition to the offline environment experiences for the intervention of non-suicidal self-injury.

Being the target of negative school gossip, a form of relational aggression, has been shown to be associated with psychological and behavioral problems in youth adolescents. Based on the experience avoidance model, this study tested the association between negative school gossip and youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction, and the serial mediation roles of anxiety and experience avoidance in this relationship. Junior high school students (N = 837; ages 12–15; 50% girls) completed the Negative School Gossip Scale, Anxiety Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II), and Mobile Phone Addiction Scale in their classrooms. The results of regression-based analyses showed that after controlling for age and gender, (1) negative school gossip was significantly associated with mobile phone addiction; (2) anxiety and experience avoidance each significantly mediated this association; (3) anxiety and experience avoidance serially mediated this association. The results support the experience avoidance model and highlight emotional factors as an internal mechanism by which negative school gossip is associated with youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction. The results also have implications for preventing and reducing youth adolescents’ mobile phone addiction.

Based on the cognitive behavioral model of pathological Internet use and the gender role theory, this present study investigated the association between the need for distinctiveness and pathological Internet use. Additionally, we explored a mediating role of maladaptive cognition in the association between the need for distinctiveness and pathological Internet use and tested whether the mediation model was moderated by gender. A sample of 745 Chinese university students (M_age = 19.92, SD_age = 1.42) was studied and participants completed anonymous questionnaires regarding the need for distinctiveness, maladaptive cognition, and pathological Internet use. Results revealed that the need for distinctiveness was positively associated with pathological Internet use, and the association between the need for distinctiveness and pathological Internet use was mediated by maladaptive cognition. In addition, gender moderated the association between maladaptive cognition and pathological Internet use; the effect was stronger for female participants than male participants. The findings expanded our understanding of the dark side of seeking distinctiveness. Practically, the results suggest that policymakers and psychological practitioners consider gender in preventing and intervening in pathological Internet use.