A longitudinal study of the impact of parental loneliness on adolescents' online game addiction: The mediating roles of adolescents’ social skill deficits and loneliness

This study longitudinally examined the predictors and mediators of adolescents' online game addiction. Apropos this, the questions of whether parental loneliness at T1 predicts adolescents' online game addiction at T3 and whether adolescents' social skill deficits and loneliness at T2 mediate in this relationship, were investigated. Panel data were collected from three waves of the Game User Panel: W2 (T1: 2015), W3 (T2: 2016), and W4 (T3: 2017). The study sample comprised 336 parent–adolescent dyads. First, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that parental loneliness is positively and significantly linked with adolescents' online game addiction two years later. Second, the results of the structural equation modeling, using the serial mediation plugin, showed that adolescents' loneliness at T2 significantly mediates the association between parental loneliness at T1 and adolescents' online game addiction at T3; however, social skill deficits at T2 do not mediate that relationship. Moreover, adolescents' social skill deficits and loneliness at T2 serially mediate the relationship between parental loneliness at T1 and adolescents' online game addiction at T3. These findings indicate that parental loneliness could be a risk factor for adolescents’ online game addictions, and provide new information regarding potential mechanisms in this relationship. •This study investigates the relationship between parental loneliness and adolescents’ online game addiction.•The mediating roles of adolescents’ social skill deficits and loneliness are also examined.•Parental loneliness was longitudinally and positively associated with adolescents’ online game addiction.•Adolescents’ loneliness played a mediating role independently, but social skill deficits did not.•Adolescents’ social skill deficits and then loneliness also played serially mediating roles.