Objective: To explore the relationships among negative emotions, working memory, impulsivity, and Internet gaming addiction among adolescents. Methods: A total of 755 adolescents (aged 12-18 years, with a mean age of 15.0±0.06 years) from three middle schools in Beijing, Hebei, and Henan were surveyed using convenience sampling. The scales employed included the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form, the Adult Executive Functioning Inventory-Self, the Short Version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. SPSS 25.0 was used for common method bias test and other analyses, while Mplus 8.11 was applied to test the mediating effects. Results: (1) Negative emotions, impulsivity, and Internet gaming addiction were all significantly positively correlated; working memory was significantly negatively correlated with negative emotions, impulsivity, and Internet gaming addiction; (2) The mediating effect analysis indicated that negative emotions had no significant direct effect on adolescents’ Internet gaming addiction. Both working memory and impulsivity independently mediated the relationship between negative emotions and adolescents’ Internet gaming addiction, with mediating effect values of 0.049 and 0.010. And they also exerted a chain mediating effect, with a mediating effect value of 0.007. Conclusion: The relationship between negative emotions and adolescents’ Internet gaming addiction is influenced by the independent mediating effects of working memory and impulsivity, as well as the chain mediating effect of working memory and impulsivity.
Wu et al. (2026) studied this question.