Internet gaming addiction (IGA) refers to excessive, compulsive, and uncontrollable use of online games that causes social and/or emotional problems (Young et al., 2011). In previous studies, the estimated prevalence of IGA among adolescents ranged from 0.7% to 27.5% (for a review see Mihara & Higuchi, 2017). In a recent study, Jin et al. (2024) found that the prevalence of IGA was 13% in a community sample of Chinese adolescents. Moreover, a previous study found that some of the social problems seen in IGA are drinking, smoking, and suicidal behaviors (Wang et al., 2022). Due to the prevalence and seriousness of IGA among today’s adolescents, it is important to identify risk factors that can be considered in prevention and intervention.

Despite existing research on the association between parent–child relationships and IGA (Zhu et al., 2022), the relationship between parent–child conflict and IGA, as well as the underlying mechanisms of this association, remain underexplored. On the basis of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and the social development model (Hawkins & Weis, 1985), the current study explored the relationship between parent–child conflict and adolescents’ IGA, with a focus on the mediating role of psychological need satisfaction and the moderating role of deviant peer affiliation in this association.

General strain theory proposes that stressful situations (e.g., parent–child conflict) can lead to strain, which in turn increases the likelihood of adolescent deviant behavior (Agnew, 1992), such as IGA. In line with this theory, Chen (2020) showed parent–child conflict is related to a higher likelihood of adolescents having IGA, and he documented a direct link between parent–child conflict and adolescents’ IGA. However, the underlying mechanism of this association remains largely unexplored. Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 1: Parent–child conflict will be associated with adolescents’ internet gaming addiction.

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) postulates that humans have needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence. When these needs are not met, adolescents might develop compensatory behaviors to assist them in meeting their needs, and compensatory behaviors may include IGA (Allen & Anderson, 2018). Indeed, a prior study has indicated that unmet psychological needs are positively related to IGA (Liang et al., 2021).

 

In addition, parent–child conflict may reduce the satisfaction of adolescents’ psychological needs. Parent–child conflict interferes with parents’ expression of warmth and support (Gao et al., 2022), leaving the adolescent’s psychological needs unmet. There is empirical evidence that parent–child conflict is associated with the risk of psychological needs frustration (R. Sun et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2018). Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2: Psychological needs satisfaction will mediate the association between parent–child conflict and adolescents’ internet gaming addiction.

Previous empirical research found that deviant peer affiliation was a direct risk predictor of IGA among adolescents (Lin et al., 2020). In the current study we examined deviant peer affiliation not as a direct predictor of IGA, but instead as a moderator of processes related to IGA. This conceptualization is consistent with a prior study showing that deviant peer affiliation amplified the negative effects of an adverse environment on adolescents’ problem behaviors (X. Sun et al., 2021).

 

Our study tested both the family social context (parent–child conflict) and the peer social context (deviant peer affiliation) in relation to adolescents’ IGA. This conceptualization fits with the social development model, which points to multiple social contexts as influencing adolescent behavior (Hawkins & Weis, 1985). Therefore, we expected that deviant peer affiliation would play a moderating role for both the direct and indirect relationships between parent–child conflict and IGA. Thus, we proposed the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3: Deviant peer affiliation will amplify the direct and indirect effects of parent–child conflict on adolescents’ internet gaming addiction.

 

The research model is shown in Figure 1.

We used a random cluster sampling method to recruit 656 students from two junior high schools in Hubei Province in central China. The mean age was 13.43 years (SD = 0.75). There were 308 female adolescents (47%) and 348 male adolescents (53%).

 

The Academic Ethics Review Board at the School of Arts and Sciences, Guangzhou Maritime University, approved this study. We obtained informed consent from adolescents, parents, and teachers prior to data collection. We communicated the study objectives to the participants and informed participants that they had the option to withdraw from the study at any time, without penalty. We asked participants to complete a pencil/paper survey in their classrooms. We emphasized that their answers should be based on their actual situation and true feelings, and the answers would be kept confidential. We also noted that some questions might elicit negative emotional reactions, and that psychologists would be available to provide timely counseling and support. Participants received a signature pen as a token of appreciation.

We measured parent–child conflict with the Conflict Frequency subscale of the Parent–Child Conflict Scale (Fang et al., 2003), which is in Chinese. There are eight items, and a sample item is “How often do you have conflicts with your parents regarding academic performance?” Items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (several times a day). The Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .84, indicating the scale is reliable.

We assessed psychological needs satisfaction with the Chinese version (Yu et al., 2012) of the Psychological Needs Satisfaction Questionnaire (Deci et al., 2000). There are 21 items, and a sample item is “I have the ability to deal with problems.” Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all true) to 5 (very true). The Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .82, indicating the scale is reliable.

We measured deviant peer affiliation with the Deviant Peer Affiliation Scale (Jiang et al., 2015), which is in Chinese. There are 10 items, and a sample item is “Do you have friends who are addicted to the internet?” Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (none) to 5 (six or more). The Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .85, indicating the scale is reliable.

We assessed internet gaming addiction with the Chinese version (Zeng & Jiang, 2016) of the Internet Gaming Disorder Questionnaire (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015). There are nine items, and a sample item is “Do you systematically fail when trying to control or cease your gaming activity?” Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). The Cronbach’s alpha in this study was .91, indicating the scale is reliable.

We used SPSS 21.0 to examine descriptive statistics and correlations. We used Models 4 and 59 of the PROCESS macro to test the hypothesized moderated mediation model. Moreover, we included gender and age as covariates.

The means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for all variables are displayed in Table 1. Parent–child conflict was positively correlated with IGA, parent–child conflict was negatively correlated with psychological needs satisfaction, psychological needs satisfaction was negatively correlated with IGA, and deviant peer affiliation was positively correlated with IGA.

Figure 2 displays the results for each path in the proposed model. After controlling for gender and age, parent–child conflict positively predicted IGA, parent–child conflict negatively predicted psychological needs satisfaction, and psychological needs satisfaction negatively predicted IGA. The indirect effect of parent–child conflict on IGA through psychological needs satisfaction was .04, 95% confidence interval = [.015, .059]. Therefore, psychological needs satisfaction partially mediated the association between parent–child conflict and IGA.

Figure 3 displays the results for each path in the proposed model. After controlling for gender and age, deviant peer affiliation significantly moderated the predictive effect of parent–child conflict on IGA. In addition, deviant peer affiliation significantly moderated the predictive effect of psychological needs satisfaction on IGA. However, deviant peer affiliation did not significantly moderate the predictive effect of parent–child conflict on psychological needs satisfaction.

We conducted simple slopes tests to better understand the results regarding deviant peer affiliation as a moderator. As depicted in Figure 4, when adolescents showed higher deviant peer affiliation, the direct relationship between parent–child conflict and IGA was significant, b = .26, p < .001. However, when adolescents showed lower deviant peer affiliation, the direct relation was not significant, b = .09, p > .05.

Likewise, as depicted in Figure 5, when adolescents showed high deviant peer affiliation, the relationship between psychological needs satisfaction and IGA was significant, b = –.46, p < .001. However, when adolescents showed low deviant peer affiliation, this relationship was weaker, although still statistically significant, b = –.26, p < .001. In other words, psychological needs satisfaction interacted with deviant peer affiliation so that when participants had more deviant peer affiliations, the degree of psychological needs satisfaction had a greater negative effect on IGA than when they had fewer deviant peer affiliations. Furthermore, when adolescents showed high deviant peer affiliation, the indirect effect of parent–child conflict on IGA through psychological needs satisfaction was .02, 95% CI = [–.005, .060]. In contrast, when adolescents showed low deviant peer affiliation, the indirect effect was .03, 95% CI = [.009, .055]. In sum, deviant peer affiliation strengthened the effects of parent–child conflict and psychological needs satisfaction on IGA.

Our study revealed a significant positive relationship between parent–child conflict and problematic online gaming use among adolescents, thus supporting Hypothesis 1. Specifically, adolescents who experience parent–child conflict were more likely to develop problematic online gaming use. According to general strain theory (Agnew, 1992), parent–child conflict can lead to strain, which in turn increases the likelihood of adolescents developing IGA. Our results are consistent with those of Chen (2020), suggesting that parent–child conflict is a key risk factor for adolescents’ IGA.

Our findings supported Hypothesis 2; psychological needs satisfaction mediated the association between parent–child conflict and adolescents’ IGA. In particular, parent–child conflict negatively predicted adolescents’ psychological needs satisfaction, which in turn increased the risk of IGA. This finding is in line with self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), which proposes that when the social environment cannot meet psychological needs, individuals compensate by getting their psychological needs met other ways. IGA may be one route by which these needs can be met (Liang et al., 2021). Our results, together with those of earlier research (R. Sun et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2018), provide evidence of a mediated pathway in which parent–child conflict increases the risk of psychological needs frustration, which in turn increases the risk of IGA.

We found that deviant peer affiliation moderated the direct and indirect effects of parent–child conflict on adolescents’ IGA, thus supporting Hypothesis 3. To be specific, among adolescents experiencing high parent–child conflict, those with higher deviant peer affiliation were more inclined than those with lower deviant peer affiliation to engage in IGA. These findings are consistent with the social development model (Hawkins & Weis, 1985), which emphasizes the critical role of deviant peers in the development of youths’ undesirable behavior. This may be because deviant peers provide adolescents with access to online games, which in turn increases the likelihood of IGA. In addition, according to social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), adolescents’ behaviors may be acquired by learning from peers. These findings were in alignment with a prior study that found that deviant peer affiliation magnified the association between adverse environments and adolescents’ undesirable behaviors (X. Sun et al., 2021). However, we found that deviant peer affiliation did not moderate the effect of parent–child conflict on adolescents’ psychological needs satisfaction. This may be because deviant peer affiliation primarily influences adolescents’ behavioral problems (Lin et al., 2020; X. Sun et al., 2021) rather than directly affecting their psychological needs satisfaction.

First, psychological needs satisfaction appears to be a mechanism linking parent–child conflict to IGA, and increasing psychological needs satisfaction may help to reduce this influence. Second, the results showed that deviant peer affiliation was a risk factor that amplified the effect of parent–child conflict on IGA. Therefore, parents and teachers should pay attention to adolescents’ peer interactions (X. Sun et al., 2021), especially to prevent adolescents from interacting with deviant peers.

First, the cross-sectional design limited our ability to infer causality in the relationships among parent–child conflict, deviant peer affiliation, psychological needs satisfaction, and IGA. Future studies can adopt a longitudinal design with multiple time points to better delineate potential reciprocal influences among the variables. Second, the data in this study came from adolescents’ self-reports, which may have introduced participant recall bias. Future research should employ a variety of tools to collect data. Third, this research only explored one moderator, namely deviant peer affiliation, and future research may consider whether other factors such as positive peer relationships (R. Sun et al., 2020) protect against the effects of parent–child conflict on adolescents’ IGA.

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Bao Liu, Student Affairs Department, North China Institute of Aerospace Engineering, No. 133, Aimin East Road, Langfang 065000, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected]