IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tbitxx/v44y2025i7p1446-1456.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perceived parental rejection and gaming disorder among adolescents: the mediating role of subjective stress and depressive symptoms

Author

Listed:
  • Renata Glavak-Tkalić
  • Josip Razum
  • Goran Milas

Abstract

Previous research suggests that both stress and depression, as well as parental rejection, are important factors in the development of gaming disorder (GD), but no studies so far have proposed a pathway leading from parental rejection via depression and stress to GD. The study aimed to examine the relationship between GD and perceived parental rejection, stress, and depressive symptoms, and to test the moderating effects of sex on these relationships. Data were collected among 1239 adolescents, with an average age of M = 16.77 (SD = .70), 50.3% of whom were females. 1.9% of adolescents met the criteria for GD (2.4% of boys and 1.4% of girls). Higher perceived parental rejection and higher levels of stress and depression were related to more GD symptoms, among male and female adolescents alike. Perceived parental rejection had no direct effect on GD. Only the indirect effects of parental rejection via depression on GD were significant. Research suggests that adolescents who report higher levels of parental rejection are more susceptible to depression and more likely to use gaming as a coping mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Renata Glavak-Tkalić & Josip Razum & Goran Milas, 2025. "Perceived parental rejection and gaming disorder among adolescents: the mediating role of subjective stress and depressive symptoms," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(7), pages 1446-1456, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:44:y:2025:i:7:p:1446-1456
    DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2024.2359043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2359043
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0144929X.2024.2359043?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:44:y:2025:i:7:p:1446-1456. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tbit .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.