Navigating the Digital Leisure Landscape: The Relationship between Online Gaming, Short Video Consumption, and Marital Satisfaction

Amidst evolving digital leisure habits, research on their impact on marital satisfaction remains limited. This study investigates the mechanisms linking digital leisure (online gaming and short video consumption) to marital satisfaction using a representative sample of 396 Chinese individuals. Drawing on media system dependency theory, results indicate that a spouse’s online gaming is positively related one’s own housework contribution, which subsequently relates with lower marital satisfaction. Online gaming and short video consumption may reduce shared couple time, which is negatively related with marital satisfaction. From a cultivation perspective, personal online gaming may foster idealized romantic beliefs, which mediate a negative relationship with marital satisfaction, while gender moderates the mediation effect of gender role attitudes between personal short video consumption and marital satisfaction. By examining the time crowding-out and cultivation effects, this study offers critical implications for understanding leisure and marriage in the digital era.