School of Education, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, People's Republic of China.
School of Marxism, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, People's Republic of China.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2024 Mar;243:104134. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104134. Epub 2024 Jan 15.
Online gaming addiction (OGA) has become a noteworthy public concern, especially among university students, thereby requiring in-depth scrutiny. Although previous cross-sectional studies have established a positive link between loneliness and OGA, there is a lack of longitudinal evidence within this field. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that elucidate the connection between loneliness and OGA are still poorly understood, underscoring a crucial research gap that requires further investigation. Our study utilized a longitudinal approach and developed a moderated mediation model. From September 2021 to September 2022, during the COVID-19 pandemic, data were collected from a sample of Chinese undergraduate students, with 367 participants at T1, 352 at T2, and 340 at T3. Participants completed online self-report surveys, providing valuable data on their levels of loneliness at T1, fear of missing out (FoMO) at T2, sensation seeking at T2, and OGA at T3. Our findings found that loneliness was positively linked to OGA. Further analysis demonstrated that FoMO partially mediated the link between loneliness and OGA. Meanwhile, sensation seeking moderated the pathway from FoMO to later OGA. Specifically, the effect of FoMO on OGA was significant for college students with high sensation seeking. This study offers longitudinal evidence linking loneliness and OGA, which has implications for the development of interventions to reduce OGA.
网络游戏成瘾（OGA）已成为一个备受关注的公共问题，尤其是在大学生群体中，因此需要深入研究。尽管之前的横断面研究已经证实了孤独感与 OGA 之间存在正相关关系，但该领域缺乏纵向证据。此外，阐明孤独感与 OGA 之间联系的潜在机制仍知之甚少，这突显了一个亟待进一步研究的关键研究空白。我们的研究采用了纵向方法，并构建了一个有调节的中介模型。在 COVID-19 大流行期间，我们于 2021 年 9 月至 2022 年 9 月从中国本科学生样本中收集数据，共有 367 名参与者在 T1 时完成了调查，352 名在 T2，340 名在 T3。参与者完成了在线自我报告调查，提供了他们在 T1 时的孤独感、T2 时的错失恐惧（FoMO）、T2 时的感觉寻求以及 T3 时的 OGA 等方面的数据。我们的研究结果发现，孤独感与 OGA 呈正相关。进一步的分析表明，FoMO 部分中介了孤独感与 OGA 之间的关系。同时，感觉寻求调节了 FoMO 到后来 OGA 的路径。具体来说，对于感觉寻求较高的大学生来说，FoMO 对 OGA 的影响更为显著。这项研究提供了纵向证据，将孤独感与 OGA 联系起来，这对于开发减少 OGA 的干预措施具有重要意义。
