TABLE 2.

Testing the mediation effect of psychological capital.

Predictor	Model 1			Model 2
	Psychological capital			Anxiety
	b	se	t	b	se	t
Gender	0.11 (0.11)	0.04 (0.06)	2.66** (1.79)	0.07 (0.03)	0.04 (0.06)	1.73 (0.46)
Problematic social media usage	−0.30 (−0.33)	0.02 (0.03)	−14.03*** (−11.34***)	0.29 (0.19)	0.02 (0.03)	14.58*** (6.61***)
Psychological capital				−0.35 (−0.39)	0.02 (0.03)	−17.57*** (−13.76***)
R2	0.09 (0.11)			0.26 (0.24)
F	106.08*** (68.11***)			246.22*** (109.88***)

Gender was dummy coded such that 1 = male and 0 = female. Model 1 regressed psychological capital on problematic social media usage and gender; Model 2 regressed anxiety on problematic social media usage, psychological capital, and gender, respectively; the b values were standardized coefficients. The data outside the brackets were for university students whose academic performance had been affected by the pandemic (n₁ = 2056), and the data inside the brackets were for university students whose academic performance had not been affected by the pandemic (n₂ = 1067). *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.