The Role of Individuals’ Need for Online Social Interactions and Interpersonal Incompetence in Digital Game Addiction

Since online digital game addiction became one of the serious social computing issues related to public health, there has been an unprecedented need to explore and understand online digital game addiction from a psychosocial perspective. Extant studies have empirically tested the effects of as well as the relationship among prominent psychological distresses such as depression, loneliness and aggression on game addiction. Likewise, previous studies have also empirically established that social interaction may take a different form and alter the social exchanges in ways that may be particularly attractive to those who are lonely. This way, online social interaction within the interfaces of digital games such as MMORPGs can become a substitute for real-life social interaction because of the online anonymity and lack of physical presence which allow users to control social interaction. However, a few studies have explored the relationships among individuals’ need for online social interaction, interpersonal incompetence and self-regulation (control) and their effects on game addiction. In addition, the mediating role of individuals’ need for online social interaction in online digital game addiction has neither been proposed nor empirically tested. The main purpose of this study is to examine digital game addiction from the perspectives of individuals’ need for online social interaction, interpersonal incompetence, self-regulation and loneliness. We believe that the findings of this study will offer new insights to policymakers in dealing with the issues of digital game addiction. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to understand the mediation effect of individuals’ need for online social interaction on game addiction.