The Mediating Role of Symptoms of Psychopathology Between Irrational Beliefs and Internet Gaming Addiction

While Internet gaming addiction has recently been proposed as a disorder, it is still discussed whether it is to some extent an effect of other disorders. By integrating the results of the previous studies of Internet gaming addiction and the postulates of REBT theory, we set up two goals. One is to determine whether the symptoms of psychopathology are mediators between irrational and rational beliefs and Internet gaming addiction. Another goal is to compare a large number of symptoms of psychopathology and determine which of these have the greatest effect on the Internet gaming addiction. An online survey was conducted on a sample of online games users, 219 high school and university students of both sexes, aged 23.87 years on average, who filled in the Gaming Addiction Scale, the Symptom Checklist and Serbian version of the General Attitude and Belief Scale. The hypothesis that the symptoms of psychopathology have a mediatory role in a relationship between irrational beliefs and Internet gaming addiction has been confirmed. A more thorough analysis determined that the obsessive–compulsive symptoms are the main mediator. We can conclude that the exploration of this type of symptoms can be helpful in the preparation of prevention and treatment programs of Internet gaming addiction. However, future research with longitudinal design is required to verify the results.