Video game addiction and adolescent psychosocial wellbeing: the role of online and real-life friendship quality

This study investigates the moderating role of the quality of online and real-life friendship on the relationship between video game addiction and psychosocial well-being. It uses a large-sample paper-and-pencil questionnaire study conducted in 2009 on secondary schools in the Netherlands. This resulted in a sample of 4054 schoolchildren (aged 13-16 years), which was subsequently reduced to a subsample of 1468 online gamers – those who play non-browser based online games with others. Measures were used to establish individual score levels for video game addiction, negative self-esteem, loneliness, depressive mood, social anxiety, the quality of online friendships, and the quality of real-life friendships. Results demonstrated that both psychosocial problems and quality of online friendships were positively associated with video game addiction Furthermore, the relationship between addiction and psychosocial problems was moderated by the quality of online friendships (for loneliness) and real-life friendships (for social anxiety and loneliness). For those with high-quality friendships, the relationship between game addiction and decreased psychosocial health was found to be weaker. These findings demonstrate that the quality of online and real-life friendships plays a role in the severity of problems associated with higher levels of video game addiction