Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 16;19(24):16909.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416909.

Relational Victimization and Video Game Addiction among Female College Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Social Anxiety and Parasocial Relationship

Gengfeng Niu  1   2   3   4 , Siyu Jin  1   2 , Fang Xu  1   2 , Shanyan Lin  5 , Zongkui Zhou  1   2   3   4 , Claudio Longobardi  5
Affiliations

Relational Victimization and Video Game Addiction among Female College Students during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Roles of Social Anxiety and Parasocial Relationship

Gengfeng Niu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Video game addiction, a common behavioral problem among college students, has been more prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic; at the same time, females' video game usage has also attracted considerable research attention. Against this background and under the perspective of social interaction, this study aimed to examine the relationship between relational victimization and video game addiction among female college students, as well as its underlying mechanism-the mediating roles of social anxiety and parasocial relationships with virtual characters. Female college students (N = 437) were recruited to complete a set of questionnaires voluntarily in June 2022. Through the mediating effect analysis, the results found that (1) relational victimization was positively associated with female college students' video game addiction; (2) social anxiety and parasocial relationships with virtual characters could independently mediate this relation; (3) social anxiety and parasocial relationships with virtual characters were also the serial mediators in this association. These findings not only expand previous studies by revealing the social motivation of video game usage and the underlying mechanism accounting for video game addiction, but also provide basis and guidance for the prevention and intervention of video game addiction in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: parasocial relationship; relational victimization; social anxiety; video game addiction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The hypothetical figure of social anxiety and parasocial relationships between relational victimization and video game addiction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Gómez-Galán J., Lázaro-Pérez C., Martínez-López J.Á. Exploratory study on video game addiction of college students in a pandemic scenario. J. New Approaches Educ. Res. 2021;10:330–346. doi: 10.7821/naer.2021.7.750. - DOI
    1. Statista. [(accessed on 16 October 2022)]. Available online: https://www.statista.com/markets/417/topic/478/video-gaming-esports/#ove....
    1. Edition F. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Am. Psychiatr. Assoc. 2013;21:591–643.
    1. Abou Naaj M., Nachouki M., LEzzar S. The impact of Video Game Addiction on Students’ Performance During COVID-19 Pandemic; Proceedings of the 2021 16th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE); Lancaster, UK. 17–21 August 2021.
    1. Nugraha Y.P., Awalya A., Mulawarman M. Predicting Video Game Addiction: The Effects of Composite Regulatory Focus and Interpersonal Competence Among Indonesian Teenagers During COVID-19 Pandemic. Islam. Guid. Couns. J. 2021;4:66–77. doi: 10.25217/igcj.v4i1.1199. - DOI

Publication types

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality at Beijing Normal University, grant number 2022-04-012-BZPK01, 2022-04-031-BZPK01; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, grant number CCNU22HQ029, and CCNU22QN020; the Key Planning Projects of Education Sciences in Hubei Province, grant number 2022GA008; and the Fujian Provincial Federation of Social Sciences, grant number FJ2020C026.