Mental health damage risk, help-seeking behavior and coping strategies among young college students under different types of network media violence: a comprehensive study based on qualitative phenomenological research methodology

BMC Public Health. 2026 Jul 21. doi: 10.1186/s12889-026-28604-6. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

With the widespread adoption of network technology and the increasing online engagement among young college students, network media violence has become a prevalent issue threatening their physical and mental health. Different types of network violence exhibit distinct patterns and impacts on students, yet existing research lacks targeted studies on their differentiated characteristics and corresponding countermeasures. This study takes Husserl’s phenomenology ‘returning to the thing itself’ as the core essence, and adopts qualitative phenomenological research methods, including literature data method, case analysis method and phenomenon combing method, to carry out in-depth analysis, so as to restore the essential characteristics of the phenomenon. This paper categorizes network media violence into four types: explicit verbal violence, privacy violation violence, implicit ridicule exclusion violence, and disinformation and defamation violence, delineating their distinct characteristics. It further reveals how different forms of network violence pose differentiated mental health risks to college students across four dimensions: emotional experience, self-worth, interpersonal adaptation, and psychological adaptation. This study elucidates the distinct impacts of various forms of network media violence on college students’ willingness to seek help, their preferred sources of assistance, the methods they employ, and the challenges they encounter during the help-seeking process. Based on these findings, targeted strategies for addressing different types of network media violence and self-protection recommendations are proposed. The research enriches the qualitative literature on network media violence and the mental health of young college students, addressing previous gaps in insufficient attention to implicit violence and the lack of focused analysis. It provides actionable insights for enhancing students’ self-protection capabilities, improving university initiatives for network media violence prevention and mental health education, and strengthening cyberspace governance by relevant authorities.

PMID:42482218 | DOI:10.1186/s12889-026-28604-6