Perceived Parental Role and Emotion Regulation in College Students with Internet Gaming and SNS Addictive Tendencies

Abstract

Behavioral Addiction is a recently emerging research topic, particularly due to the explosive use of the internet, which is no longer limited to a personal computer. The mobility of internet use has resulted in a rampant rise in internet gaming and SNS addictions, especially with the high and easy accessibility in South Korea. The purpose of this study aims to explore variables and characteristics that may affect undergraduate students internet gaming and SNS addictive tendencies. This study explored the retrospective and current parental role and emotion regulation of internet gaming and SNS addictive college students. In study 1, perceived parental behavior (further categorized into maternal care and overprotection, paternal care and overprotection) and emotion regulation difficulties in students with internet gaming and SNS addictive tendencies were examined. Male students heavily concentrated the internet gaming addictive condition. Students with internet gaming addictive tendencies reported experiencing less retrospective parental care, more parental overprotection while reporting less current parental attachment. On the other hand, students with SNS addictive tendencies reported a parallel pattern in terms of retrospective maternal role and current maternal attachment. However, there was an opposite directionality in retrospective paternal care. In study 2, specific emotion regulation strategies used by those with internet gaming and SNS addictive tendencies were explored. Also, an experimental study using the emotional go/no-go task was conducted to identify emotion regulation difficulties among students with addictive tendencies. The SNS addictive group showed greater support-seeking emotion regulation strategy, whereas the internet gaming addictive group did not show a tendency toward any emotion regulation strategy. The behavioral go/no-go task failed to display emotion regulation difficulties for the internet gaming addictive group. On the other hand, the SNS addictive group showed difficulties for both the classic and emotional go/no-go task, demonstrating an overall deficit in behavioral inhibition in comparison to the control condition. The findings of the present study suggest significant gender differences in internet gaming and SNS addictive tendencies, and the differential roles of the mother and father in internet gaming and SNS addictive behavior. Greater emotion regulation difficulties were found in the SNS addictive condition. Finally, the implications and limitations of this study, and suggestions for future studies were discussed.