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Adult Attachment, Perceived Social Support, and Problematic Video Gaming Behavior

With the growing popularity in video games, there has been increased concerns over the prolonged exposure to the entertainment medium. Problematic gaming is defined as a pattern of gaming behavior that causes significant impairment in personal, social, other important areas of functioning, often characterized by preoccupation and loss of interest in other areas. This study examined how problematic gaming behaviors may be influenced by insecure adult attachment and perceived social support from differing sources. It was hypothesized that avoidant attachment would have a significant direct and indirect effect (via perceived social support) on problematic gaming. In addition, perceived social support from online friends and from offline friends were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between attachment and problematic gaming, Participants were recruited from both SONA (n = 151) and Amazon's Mturk (n = 264) to complete an online research questionnaire that measured variables of interest. Results indicated that the direct and indirect effects of attachment avoidance on problematic gaming were supported in both subsamples but the moderator effects were not. Further exploratory analysis found that anxious attachment demonstrated a similar pattern as avoidant attachment, but with a significant moderator effect of perceived social support from online friends (enhance) on the attachment anxiety and problematic gaming relation. Additionally, anhedonia and depressive symptoms were found to be significantly correlated with problematic gaming. Limitations, future research directions, and clinical implications are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1752340
Date12 1900
CreatorsGu, Peter
ContributorsWang, Chiahchich DC, Watkins, Ed, Guillot, Casey
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formativ, 54 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Gu, Peter, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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