Perceived Social Support and Internet Gaming Disorder Symptoms among Chinese College Students: The Serial Mediating Roles of Loneliness and Self-Control
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66581/g43m6w70Keywords:
Internet gaming disorder, perceived social support, loneliness, self-control, Chinese college students, serial mediationAbstract
Background: Internet gaming disorder (IGD) symptoms among college students have attracted sustained research attention, but less is known about the sequential interpersonal and self-regulatory mechanisms through which social support may relate to IGD. Drawing on the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model and compensatory Internet-use perspectives, this cross-sectional study examined whether loneliness and self-control serially mediated the association between perceived social support and IGD symptoms in Chinese college students. Methods: A total of 509 Chinese college students completed an online self-report questionnaire. Participants were 18 to 30 years old (M = 20.27, SD = 1.45); 360 were men (70.7%) and 149 were women (29.3%). Perceived social support, loneliness, self-control, and IGD symptoms were assessed using self-report scales; all four measures showed good to excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .874-.952). Gender, age, and pre-college residence were entered as covariates. Serial mediation was tested using PROCESS Model 6 with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Results: Perceived social support was negatively associated with loneliness (B = -0.392, p < .001). Loneliness was negatively associated with self-control (B = -0.528, p < .001) and positively associated with IGD symptoms (B = 0.137, p < .001). Self-control was negatively associated with IGD symptoms (B = -0.135, p < .001). The direct effect of perceived social support on IGD symptoms was nonsignificant after the mediators were included (B = -0.008, p = .732). The total indirect effect was significant (Effect = -0.086, 95% bootstrap CI [-0.113, -0.060]), including the loneliness pathway and the serial pathway through loneliness and self-control. The indirect path through self-control alone was not significant. Conclusions: Lower perceived social support may be associated with higher IGD symptoms primarily through greater loneliness and, secondarily, through the sequential pathway from loneliness to lower self-control. These findings support an interpersonal-self-regulatory account of IGD symptoms among Chinese college students. Because the data were cross-sectional and based on self-report, causal and clinical interpretations should be avoided.
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