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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Commun.

Sec. Multimodality of Communication

Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2025.1585586

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Dark and the Light Side of Gaming (Volume II)View all 10 articles

Motivations for the Use of Games in Coping and Emotional Regulation

Provisionally accepted
  • Boston University, Boston, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study explores motivations for the use of video games, using the twin theoretical lenses of mood management and stress response theory, as well as how individual differences in motivational orientation moderate emotional regulation. The role of genres in selective exposure and the extent to which this overlaps with individual motivations for play are also addressed. An exploratory survey (N = 348) was conducted to gather data on respondents' personalities, gameplay habits, motivations, genre preferences, coping strategies, and emotional states. Gameplay as coping was found to be quite widespread, and associations were found between this behavior and respondents' motivations for gaming in general, as well as with individual differences related to immersion. Motivational orientations towards narrative involvement, social interaction, and escapism were likewise associated with using games to cope with stress, while the regulatory effects of gameplay were also found to be moderated by players' orientation towards autonomy and exploration.

Keywords: games, emotion, stress, coping, Motivation, Self-regulation, Well-being

Received: 04 Mar 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Cahill, Cummings and Wertz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Tiernan Cahill, tjcahill@bu.edu

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