Examining the interaction between internet gaming engagement and psychological needs in adolescents: implications for internet gaming disorder based on a large-scale school-based survey

Abstract Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been an increasing health concern for adolescents. While Internet gaming engagement operationalized as the time spent on Internet games is a significant predictor of IGD symptoms, the magnitude of association may depend on adolescents’ psychological characteristics. Grounded in the uses and gratification theory and the self-determination theory, we tested whether psychological needs-related factors (i.e., perceived parental psychological control, interpersonal conflicts, perceived social support, self-esteem, and perceived academic stress) moderated the association between Internet gaming engagement and IGD symptoms in female and male adolescents, respectively. Data were collected from a large and representative sample of Chinese secondary school students in Hong Kong ( n = 7,651) from November 2020 to January 2022 (49.3% males; mean age = 14.5 years old). Almost all main effects of Internet gaming engagement (B: 0.26 to 0.62; p < 0.001) and psychological needs-related factors (B: -0.56 to 0.07; p < 0.01) on IGD symptoms remained significant, except for perceived academic expectation stress in males ( p > 0.05). Moderation models showed that the association between Internet gaming engagement and IGD symptoms was stronger in females who perceived higher parental psychological control (B: 0.53 vs. 0.45; p < 0.001), more relationship conflicts (B: 0.50 vs. 0.45; p < 0.001), or lower social support (B: 0.52 vs. 0.41; p < 0.001) and self-esteem (B: 0.50 vs. 0.39; p < 0.001), and for males (B: 0.45 vs. 0.36; p < 0.001) and females (B: 0.59 vs. 0.45; p < 0.001) with higher perceived academic stress. The findings are important to help researchers and mental health professionals identify high-risk gamers and develop gender-tailored services for early identification and treatment of IGD.