中華心理衛生協會

 Purpose: Previous studies indicated that accessibility and peer influence predicted internet gaming addiction among adolescents, but few studies have investigated the underlying process. Based on the literature review, we hypothesized that positive internet gaming use expectancy would mediate the links between accessibility, peer influence and internet gaming addiction, and that well-being would moderate this mediating effect. Methods: This study is part of an investigation of teen internet use conducted in 2015 in which participants were recruited from junior and senior high schools throughout Taiwan using both stratified and random cluster sampling. The valid samples were composed of 2,806 junior high school and 3,312 senior high school students. After obtaining the students' and their parents' informed consent, the students completed questionnaires in class on background characteristics, internet gaming accessibility, peer influence, positive internet gaming use expectancy, well-being, and internet gaming addiction. Results: The results in both junior and senior high school samples consistently indicated that peer influence predicted internet gaming addiction, and that this relationship was fully mediated by positive internet gaming use expectancy. Accessibility directly and indirectly predicted internet gaming addiction, mediated by positive internet gaming use expectancy. However, the level of well-being significantly moderated the mediating effect of positive internet gaming use expectancy in linking internet game accessibility and peer influence to internet gaming addiction. Further analyses indicated that the predictive power of positive internet gaming use expectancy on internet gaming addiction weakened as the level of well-being increased. Conclusions: These findings provide empirical evidence to support the mediating role of internet gaming expectancy and the protective role of well-being in the link between social risk factors and internet gaming addiction among adolescents. Our findings clarify the mechanism through which peer influence has its impact on gaming addiction and can be used to design prevention and treatment strategies for gaming addiction among adolescents.