Digital stress and life satisfaction in e-sports players: examining the indirect association through fear of missing out

Background Digital stress and fear of missing out (FoMO) may be relevant to psychological well-being in esports players who engage in intensive and continuous digital interaction. However, the statistical association between digital stress and life satisfaction and the potential role of FoMO in this association remain insufficiently understood. This study aimed to examine the indirect association between digital stress and life satisfaction through FoMO among esports players. Methods A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was employed. Data were collected through an online survey from 399 esports players living in Kayseri, Türkiye. Participants completed a personal information form, the Life Satisfaction Scale, the Multidimensional Digital Stress Scale, and the Fear of Missing Out in Social Situations Scale. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to examine bivariate associations among the study variables. An indirect-association model (structurally equivalent to Hayes’ Model 4) was estimated in jamovi (medmod module) to examine whether FoMO statistically accounted for the association between digital stress and life satisfaction. The indirect effect was evaluated using 5,000 bootstrap resamples and a percentile 95% confidence interval; path coefficients are unstandardized regression estimates. Sensitivity and discriminant-validity analyses were added in R. Results Digital stress was strongly and positively associated with FoMO (ρ = 0.717, p < 0.001), while FoMO was weakly and positively associated with life satisfaction (ρ = 0.203, p < 0.001). Digital stress was also weakly and positively associated with life satisfaction (ρ = 0.193, p < 0.001). A small indirect association of digital stress with life satisfaction through FoMO was observed ( B = 0.057; 95% CI [0.002, 0.118]; [−0.0001, 0.117] with 20,000 resamples in R), so its significance was borderline, whereas the direct effect was not statistically significant after FoMO was included in the model ( B = 0.025, p = 0.443). The estimate was similar without overlapping items (standardized a × b = 0.15–0.17), but discriminant validity was only partly supported (latent r = 0.80–0.89). Conclusion The findings indicate a small, borderline indirect association between digital stress and life satisfaction through FoMO among esports players. FoMO may therefore be a relevant variable to consider in the relationship between digital stress and life satisfaction in this population, although the result was not robust. However, because of the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as statistical associations rather than evidence of temporal or causal relationships. Longitudinal and experimental studies are needed to further clarify the relationships among digital stress, FoMO, and life satisfaction.