AUTHOR=Wang Yang , Liu Bingjie , Zhang Lei , Zhang Peng 

TITLE=Anxiety, Depression, and Stress Are Associated With Internet Gaming Disorder During COVID-19: Fear of Missing Out as a Mediator

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.827519

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.827519

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Background: Many teenagers suffered negative emotion during COVID-19 outbreak, especially anxiety and depression, and most of teenagers choose Internet games to cope with negative emotion. Previous evidence indicated that fear of missing out is related with anxiety and depression of teenagers with Internet gaming disorder, but it is unclear that how fear of missing out influence the depression, anxiety or stress. 
Methods: Based on I-PACE model, using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), Fear of Missing Out Scale and Internet Gaming Addiction Scale, 324 middle school students as participants, this study explored the mediating effect of fear of missing out on depression, anxiety or stress and Internet gaming disorder. 
Results: The results showed that depression, and stress are significantly related to Internet gaming disorder through the partial mediating of fear of missing out, anxiety is no significantly related to Internet gaming disorder through the full mediating of fear of missing out, anxiety and stress have a greater predictive effect on Internet gaming disorder through fear of missing out. And students who play Honor of Kings or Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds have more risks to Internet gaming disorder.
Conclusions: The results indicated that fear of missing out as a mediator regulates the relationship among depression, anxiety and stress and Internet game disorder. Specifically, under the mediation of fear of missing out, teenagers with anxiety are more likely to develop Internet gaming disorder, while teenagers with depression or stress might prone to other types of Internet use disorders.