Abstract
This study examined the effect of academic expectation stress on online gaming disorder through psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and burnout) among Chinese adolescents. Further, we tested how stress mindset would moderate the direct and indirect paths. A sample of 2001 adolescents was obtained through a cross-sectional survey from one city in Hebei Province, China. Empirical results indicated that academic expectation stress was directly associated with online gaming disorder. Depression, anxiety, and burnout partially mediated the relationship between academic expectation stress and online gaming disorder. Besides, both direct and indirect pathways of the proposed model could be moderated by stress mindset. Specifically, the direct effect of academic expectation stress on online gaming disorder was only significant among adolescents with a low level of stress-is-enhancing mindset, and the effects between academic expectation stress and depression as well as anxiety were significantly stronger for adolescents with a low level of stress-is-enhancing mindset compared with those with a high level of stress-is-enhancing mindset. Our study proposed a new conceptual framework for understanding the complex relationship between academic expectation stress and online gaming disorder. Practical implications were also discussed in this study.
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