Kim Jeong Ae, Choi Jae In, Lee Sung Je, Jeong Eui Jun
Department of Humanities Counseling & Therapy, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Department of Digital Culture & Contents, Konkuk University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Front Psychol. 2025 Jul 2;16:1539162. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1539162. eCollection 2025.
Long-term exposure to negative emotions (e. g., anxiety, depression, loneliness) in adolescents has been reported to inhibit psychological growth and contribute to academic stress, aggression, and problem behaviors, including pathological gaming. However, there is a lack of longitudinal studies that examine the pathways through which academic stress and aggression, induced by negative emotions, lead to pathological gaming. This study aims to explore whether negative emotions significantly influence academic stress, self-control, and aggression, and whether self-control can mediate these pathways.
This study analyzed 3 years of longitudinal data from Korean adolescent gamers ( = 968) using structural equation modeling. It aimed to explain how self-control mediates the pathways between negative emotions, academic stress, aggression, and pathological gaming, and to investigate the associations among these factors.
Negative emotions were found to have a significant positive association with academic stress and aggression, but did not significantly associate with self-control. Furthermore, self-control was found to fully mediate the relationship between academic stress and pathological gaming, and partially mediate the relationship between aggression and pathological gaming. Therefore, while negative emotions did not directly influence self-control, they may affect other variables that, in turn, influence self-control, ultimately leading to pathological gaming. This finding is a key result of our study.
Preventing long-term exposure to negative emotions in adolescents and managing factors that influence self-control could be useful strategies for preventing pathological gaming. The results of this study suggest that continuous care for adolescents' psychological wellbeing and providing support to strengthen self-control could be effective interventions to suppress problem behaviors and foster healthy development in adolescents.
据报道，青少年长期暴露于负面情绪（如焦虑、抑郁、孤独）会抑制心理成长，并导致学业压力、攻击性和问题行为，包括病理性游戏。然而，缺乏纵向研究来探究由负面情绪引发的学业压力和攻击性导致病理性游戏的途径。本研究旨在探讨负面情绪是否会显著影响学业压力、自我控制和攻击性，以及自我控制是否能在这些途径中起中介作用。
本研究使用结构方程模型分析了韩国青少年游戏玩家（n = 968）三年的纵向数据。旨在解释自我控制如何在负面情绪、学业压力、攻击性和病理性游戏之间的途径中起中介作用，并研究这些因素之间的关联。
发现负面情绪与学业压力和攻击性存在显著正相关，但与自我控制无显著关联。此外，发现自我控制完全中介了学业压力与病理性游戏之间的关系，部分中介了攻击性与病理性游戏之间的关系。因此，虽然负面情绪没有直接影响自我控制，但它们可能会影响其他变量，而这些变量反过来又会影响自我控制，最终导致病理性游戏。这一发现是我们研究的关键结果。
防止青少年长期暴露于负面情绪以及管理影响自我控制的因素可能是预防病理性游戏的有用策略。本研究结果表明，持续关注青少年的心理健康并提供支持以增强自我控制，可能是抑制问题行为和促进青少年健康发展的有效干预措施。
