Attachment, Emotion Dysregulation, and Video Game Play: Testing the Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation in Gaming Disorder

Insecure attachment styles (anxious and avoidant) are significantly associated with the severity of gaming disorder (GD) symptoms. Research has also suggested that emotion dysregulation may be one mechanism by which insecure attachment styles lead to greater severity of GD symptoms. In this study, we tested the potential mediating role of emotion dysregulation in a sample of university students. A mediation model was tested among 287 undergraduate students aged 16-41 at the University of Calgary, Canada. Participants completed self-report measures of severity of GD (Game Addiction Inventory for Adults), attachment (Experiences in Close Relationships), and emotion dysregulation (Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale). As hypothesized, greater insecure attachment was significantly associated with greater GD symptoms and increased emotion dysregulation severity. Further, emotion dysregulation predicted greater GD symptoms when controlling for insecure attachment. Critically, emotion dysregulation significantly mediated the relationship between insecure attachment and GD. The results from this study suggest that emotion dysregulation may mediate the relationship between insecure attachment and excessive gaming among university students. These results have the potential to inform the distinction between non-problematic engagement and GD.