An investigation of the mediator effect of emotion regulation in the relationship between parental emotional availability and game addiction among late adolescents

This study aimed to examine how difficulty in emotion regulation mediates the relationship between parental emotional availability and game addiction among late adolescence. While a sample of study consistented of 537 adolescent participants between the ages of 18-21, research data obtained from participants were collected online via Parental Emotional availability Scale, Emotion Regulation Difficulties Scale, Internet Gaming Disorder Short Form, and Sociodemographic Characteristics and Data Form. Simple regression and multiple linear hierarchical regression analyzes were used to test the basic hypotheses of the study. As a result of the analysis, the full mediating effect of difficulty in emotion regulation was found in the relationship between both mother's (β= -,072, B= -,024, SS= ,014, p=0,86) and father's (β = -, 061, B = -, 019, SS =, 013, p = 0.14) emotional availability scores and game addiction scores. Also, awareness, (B= -,040, SS= ,015, p=0,007), clarity (B= -,045, SS= ,015, p=0,002), acceptance (B= -,041, SS= ,015, p=0,005), impulse control (B= -,039, SS= ,015, p=0,007), goals (B= -,056, SS= ,015, p=0,000) and strategies (B= -,033, SS= ,014, p=0,025) subscales of emotion regulation difficulty were found that a partial mediating effect on the relationship between the mother's emotional availability and game addiction. In addition to this, it was concluded that the awareness (B= -,037, SS= ,014, p=0,006), clarity (B= -,034, SS= ,014, p=0,012), acceptance (B= -,034, SS= ,014, p=0,014), impulse control (B= -,031, SS= ,013, p=0,009), goals (B= -,035, SS= ,013, p=0,009), and strategies (B= -,027, SS= ,014, p=0,047) subscales of emotion regulation difficulty had a partial mediating role in the relationship between the father's emotional availability and game addiction. The study reveals that the relationship between parents' emotional availability and game addiction is mediated by emotion regulation difficulties. In this sense, the findings were gained will reveal the importance of the parental role and contribute to the treatment and preventive intervention plans related to game addiction. Key words: Game addiction, Digital addiction, Emotion regulation, Emotional availability, Adolescence