Psychological resilience can help combat the effect of stress on problematic social networking site usage

•Perceived stress was positively associated with problematic SNS usage.•Psychological resilience was negatively related with problematic SNS usage.•Psychological resilience moderated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage.

This study was aimed to test the association between perceived stress and problematic social networking site (SNS) usage, and to figure out whether psychological resilience moderated this relationship. The Perceived Stress Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire were administered to 499 Chinese college students. The results showed that (1) perceived stress was positively associated with problematic SNS usage; (2) psychological resilience was negatively related with problematic SNS usage; and (3) psychological resilience moderated the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage. Specifically, the relationship between perceived stress and problematic SNS usage was statistically significant for students with a lower level of psychological resilience, while no significant association was found for those with a higher level of psychological resilience. The findings emphasize the importance of enhancing psychological resilience to decrease the likelihood of college students who experience higher level of stress from using SNS problematically.