Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson), 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada; University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research at The Royal, Ottawa, ON K1Z 7K4, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson), 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada.
Addict Behav. 2023 Jan;136:107473. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107473. Epub 2022 Aug 30.
Gaming disorder (i.e., gaming addiction) is a relatively common mental health disorder with a worldwide prevalence rate of 3.05%. In the present research, we examined whether emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in two samples of current video game players. The first sample consisted of 1,262 students recruited from five universities across Canada. The second sample comprised 417 community adults residing in Canada. Both samples of participants completed an online survey which included measures of adverse childhood experiences, problematic gaming, and emotion dysregulation. A total of 45.64% (n = 576) in the university sample and 49.76% (n = 205) in the community sample met the threshold for problematic gaming. In the student sample, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with problematic gaming. In contrast, there was no significant association between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in the community sample. In both samples, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with emotion dysregulation, and emotion dysregulation was positively associated with problematic gaming. Importantly for the present research, emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in both the university and community sample. Although adverse childhood experiences are distal and static risk factors for problematic gaming, emotion dysregulation is a more proximal and modifiable risk factor. The results suggest that increasing adaptive emotion regulation skills may decrease the risk of problematic gaming among individuals who have experienced an adverse childhood experience.
游戏障碍（即游戏成瘾）是一种较为常见的精神健康障碍，全球患病率为 3.05%。在本研究中，我们检验了情绪失调是否在两个当前视频游戏玩家样本中，中介了不良童年经历与问题性游戏之间的关系。第一个样本由来自加拿大五所大学的 1262 名学生组成。第二个样本由居住在加拿大的 417 名社区成年人组成。两个样本的参与者都完成了一项在线调查，其中包括不良童年经历、问题性游戏和情绪失调的测量。在大学样本中，共有 45.64%（n=576）和社区样本中 49.76%（n=205）达到了问题性游戏的标准。在学生样本中，不良童年经历与问题性游戏呈正相关。相比之下，在社区样本中，不良童年经历与问题性游戏之间没有显著关联。在两个样本中，不良童年经历与情绪失调呈正相关，情绪失调与问题性游戏呈正相关。对于本研究来说，重要的是，情绪失调在大学和社区样本中均中介了不良童年经历与问题性游戏之间的关系。尽管不良童年经历是问题性游戏的远距离和静态风险因素，但情绪失调是一个更接近和可改变的风险因素。研究结果表明，增加适应性情绪调节技能可能会降低经历过不良童年经历的个体发生问题性游戏的风险。
