Emotion dysregulation mediates the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming

Gaming disorder (i.e., gaming addiction) is a relatively common mental health disorder with a worldwide prevalence rate of 3.05%. In the present research, we examined whether emotion dysregulation mediates the relation between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in two samples of current video game players. The first sample consisted of 1,262 students recruited from five universities across Canada. The second sample comprised 417 community adults residing in Canada. Both samples of participants completed an online survey which included measures of adverse childhood experiences, problematic gaming, and emotion dysregulation. A total of 45.64% (n = 576) in the university sample and 49.76% (n = 205) in the community sample met the threshold for problematic gaming. In the student sample, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with problematic gaming. In contrast, there was no significant association between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in the community sample. In both samples, adverse childhood experiences were positively associated with emotion dysregulation, and emotion dysregulation was positively associated with problematic gaming. Importantly for the present research, emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and problematic gaming in both the university and community sample. Although adverse childhood experiences are distal and static risk factors for problematic gaming, emotion dysregulation is a more proximal and modifiable risk factor. The results suggest that increasing adaptive emotion regulation skills may decrease the risk of problematic gaming among individuals who have experienced an adverse childhood experience.