Zhenyu Zhao
Mengmeng Zhao
Huiru Pan
Ruixin Wang
Lina Li
*
Hongge Luo
*The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Addictive Behaviors
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1426559
The Effects of Negative Life Events on College Students' Problematic Online Gaming Use: A Chain-Mediated Model of Boredom Proneness Regulation
Provisionally accepted- North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
The study investigated the impact of negative life events on college students' problematic online gaming use, as well as the mediating role of basic psychological needs and anxiety, and the moderating effect of boredom proneness. A total of 1102 college students were surveyed by using the Adolescent Negative Life Events Scale, Basic Psychological Needs Scale, GAD-7, DSM-5, and Boredom Proneness Scale. From the sample, 881 participants with experience in online gaming were selected for the study. The results showed that: (1) Controlling for gender and grade, negative life events significantly and positively predicted problematic online gaming use. (2) Basic psychological needs and anxiety played a mediating role in the relationship between negative life events and problematic online gaming use. (3) Boredom proneness significantly moderated the first half of the model. Basic psychological needs and anxiety mediate the relationship between negative life events and college students' problematic online gaming use. Moreover, under conditions of low boredom proneness, the independent mediating effect of basic psychological needs and the mediating effect of basic psychological needs and anxiety are enhanced, while the independent mediating effect of anxiety is weakened.
Keywords: Negative life events, Basic psychological needs, Anxiety, Problematic online gaming use, Boredom proneness
Received: 01 May 2024; Accepted: 12 Nov 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Zhao, Zhao, Pan, Wang, Li and Luo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lina Li, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
Hongge Luo, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China
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