The Relationship between Game Addiction, Emotional Autonomy and Emotion Regulation in Adolescents: A Multiple Mediation Model

Abstract

This study researches the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationship between emotional autonomy and game addiction. The sample of the study consists of 335 adolescents. Ages of the sample are between 14 and 18, and the mean age is 15.78. 135 (40.3%) of the participants are 9th graders, 96 (28.7%) are 10th graders, 62 (18.5%) are 11th graders, and 42 (12.5%) are 12th graders. Weekly aimless internet usage time of the adolescents were found to vary between 1 and 80, with a mean of 22 hours. Game Addiction Scale, Emotional Autonomy Scale and Emotion Regulation Scale were used as data collection tools. SPSS 25 package program and PROCESS Macro program, which works as an add-on to it, were used in data analysis. According to the results of the study, emotional autonomy significantly predicts dysfunctional internal and external emotion regulation sub-dimensions and game addiction in a positive way. Dysfunctional emotion regulation predicts game addiction significantly in a positive way. The relationship between emotional autonomy and game addiction is mediated by dysfunctional internal emotion regulation and dysfunctional external emotion regulation. As a result, it was found that the relationship between emotional autonomy and game addiction occurred through dysfunctional emotion regulation.