<p>While short videos have gained immense popularity among adolescents, excessive engagement can lead to short video addiction. Prior research has linked SVA to multiple psychological constructs, but most studies have examined bivariate associations in isolation, leaving the interplay among factors—and their relative salience within an integrative framework—underexplored. Guided by the Interaction of Person–Affect–Cognition–Execution (I-PACE) model, we used network analysis to map associations between SVA, personal characteristics, negative emotions, and maladaptive cognitions. This study involved 794 Chinese adolescents aged 11 to 18 years (<i>M</i>= 14.13, <i>SD</i> = 1.68), with 41.40% male participants. Network analysis was used to examine the network structure between short video addiction and psychological variables. Academic stress, reward sensitivity-pleasure seeking, emotion regulation difficulties, stress, and social anxiety were directly connected to short video addiction, suggesting they are proximal factors associated with addiction. Furthermore, sensation seeking, reward sensitivity-reward reactivity, reward sensitivity-drive, punishment sensitivity-behavioral inhibition system, anxiety, and depression were indirectly linked to short video addiction through specific pathways, indicating they are distal factors in the network. Centrality analysis identified the following as the most influential nodes in the network: stress, social anxiety and behavioral activation-pleasure seeking. These findings lend support to the I-PACE theory by highlighting associations underlying short video addiction and offering potential avenues for intervention.</p>