Children's stressful life experience, school connectedness, and online gaming addiction moderated by gratitude

Abstract

We investigated the mediating role of school connectedness in the relationship between stressful life experience and online gaming addiction among elementary school children. In addition, we investigated whether this mediation process is moderated by gratitude. Participants were 579 upper elementary school students in China, who completed a survey regarding stressful life experience, school connectedness, gratitude, and online gaming addiction. Results showed that school connectedness partially mediated the relationship between stressful life experience and online gaming addiction. Moreover, this indirect association was moderated by gratitude, with a stronger indirect effect observed for children with low gratitude and a weaker indirect effect observed for those with high gratitude. Empirical implications of the findings, limitations in the study, and future directions for related research are discussed.