Online game addiction among adolescents: motivation and prevention factors

Abstract

Online game addiction has become a common phenomenon that affects many individuals and societies. In this study we rely on the functionalist perspective of human behavior and propose and test a balanced model of the antecedents of online game addiction among adolescents, which simultaneously focuses on motivating, and prevention and harm reduction forces. First, a sample of 163 adolescents was used for validating and refining a survey instrument. Second, survey data collected from 623 adolescents were analyzed with Partial Least Squares techniques. The findings point to several functional needs (e.g., need for relationship and need for escapism) that drive online game playing and addiction, as well as to several prevention and harm reduction factors (e.g., education, attention switching activities) that reduce game playing time and alleviate online game addiction. The effects of motivation and prevention factors on online game addiction are often partially mediated by online game playing. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• addiction
• technology addiction
• computer games
• motivation
• prevention
• harm reduction

Notes

1 The Chinese version of the survey is available upon request by contacting the first author.

2 In China, middle school is 6 years long, from ages 12 to 18. The middle school is also divided into 3-year junior level and 3-year senior level.

3 We first included gender and grade as control variables in our model. The results show that they have no significant impact on the endogenous constructs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhengchuan Xu

About the authors

Zhengchuan Xu is an associate professor at the school of management, Fudan University. He received his M.S. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2000 and his Ph.D. from Fudan University in 2003. He has studied as Post Doctor fellow at McMaster University, Canada. His research interests include mobile commerce and delinquency behavior research. He has published over 50 research papers in refereed journals, academics conferences, and scholarly books. His work has appeared in journals such as Communications of the ACM, International Journal of Mobile Communications, Knowledge-based Systems, International Journal of Emergency Management, Telecommunications Policy, Tsinghua Science and Technology. He was the ‘Context-Aware and Location-Based Services’ Track Chair for ICMB 2007 (The Sixth International Conference on Mobile Business), and Technical Program Committee member for ICCGI (International Multi-Conference on Computing in the Global Information Technology) 2009, 2010.

Ofir Turel

Ofir Turel is a professor of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at the College of Business and Economics, California State University, Fullerton. Before joining the academia, he held senior positions in the information technology and telecommunications industries. He received his Ph.D in MIS from McMaster University, Canada. His research interests include a broad range of behavioral and managerial issues in various information systems contexts. His work received several national and international awards, and was presented in many conferences. He published over 30 articles in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Journal of Information Systems, Behavior & Information Technology, Telecommunications Policy, Group Decision and Negotiation, Computers & Industrial Engineering and Communications in Statistics.

Yufei Yuan

Yufei Yuan is a professor of Information Systems at DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems from The University of Michigan in U.S. and B.S. in Mathematics from Fudan University in China. His research interests are in the areas of mobile commerce, emergency response systems, web-based negotiation support systems, security and privacy, business model of electronic commerce, fuzzy logic and expert systems, matching problem, and information systems in health care. Dr. Yuan has published 70 papers in many high quality journals such as MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Communications of the ACM, Decision Support Systems, Information & Management, IEEE Security and Privacy, International Journal of Mobile Communications, Group Decision and Negotiation, Fuzzy Sets and Systems, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Management Sciences, European Journal of Operational Research, Decision Sciences, and others. Dr. Yuan has been actively involved in many professional organizations. He served as Conference Chair for ICMB 2007 (International Conference on Mobile Business) and Program Co-Chair for AMCIS 2008 (Americas Conference on Information Systems). He also served as a Guest Editor for a special issue of International Journal of Mobile Communications and a Guest Co-Editor for a special issue of Group Decision and Negotiation. He is the Editorial Board Member of IJMC (International Journal of Mobile Communications) and others. Dr. Yuan was appointed as Wayne C. Fox Chair in Business Innovation in 2002-2008 and his name is listed in Who's Who in Canada.