Digital fatigue and academic resilience among university students with grit and flexibility as mediators

The increasing reliance on digital technologies in higher education has led to a rise in digital fatigue, which negatively impacts students’ academic resilience. While psychological traits such as grit and psychological flexibility enhance resilience, their individual and combined effects on digital fatigue remain underexplored, particularly in Chinese academic settings. This study aimed to investigate the direct effect of digital fatigue on academic resilience and to examine the mediating roles of psychological flexibility and grit, both individually and sequentially, among undergraduate students in Guangzhou, China. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between November and December 2024, using validated scales to collect data from 2109 participants. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis explored direct and indirect relationships among the study constructs. The results showed that digital fatigue significantly negatively affected academic resilience (β = -0.481, p < 0.001). Psychological flexibility did not independently mediate this relationship (β = 0.011, 95% CI: -0.009, 0.036), but grit significantly mediated the effect (β = -0.125, 95% CI: -0.218, -0.089). Furthermore, a significant chain mediation effect (β = 0.015, 95% CI: 0.007, 0.122) indicated that psychological flexibility and grit interactively contributed to resilience by enabling cognitive adaptation and sustained effort. The study emphasized that digital fatigue is a significant barrier to academic resilience. Promoting perseverance through grit-building strategies and adaptability through flexibility-enhancing programs can support students in managing digital stress. These findings provided a foundation for developing targeted interventions to improve well-being and academic performance in digitally intensive environments.