Social control and self-control: factors linking exposure to domestic violence and adolescents' Internet gaming addiction

Li Quancai; Cui Meng; Cui Kunjie

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1245563

Social control and self-control: factors linking exposure to domestic violence and adolescents' Internet gaming addiction

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Aug 23:14:1245563. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1245563. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Li Quancai¹, Cui Meng², Cui Kunjie¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Social Policy and Social Work, Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China.
² Department of Sociology, School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Although many studies have investigated the influencing factors of adolescents' Internet gaming addiction, few have investigated the influence factor of exposure to domestic violence, and even fewer have used the General Strain Theory to explain the influence path of exposure to domestic violence on adolescents' Internet gaming addiction. Based on the GST, this study sought to uncover further insights into the effect of exposure to family violence on adolescents' Internet gaming addiction, and the mediating role of social control-specifically, parental attachment-and self-control in the association between exposure to family violence and adolescents' Internet gaming addiction. Adopting a multi-stage cluster random sampling method, we conducted this study with 2,110 adolescents from Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, China. The results suggest that adolescents' exposure to domestic violence directly affects their addiction to Internet games and indirectly affects it by decreasing social control and self-control. The study not only supplements and improves the explanatory framework of General Strain Theory, but makes a significant contribution to research on the causes of Internet gaming addiction.

Keywords: Internet gaming addiction; exposure to domestic violence; parental attachment; self-control; social control.