Immersive experience of online gaming among Chinese college students: the enhanced effect of sleep deprivation on emotion regulation and problematic gaming within the I-PACE model.

Résumé

Online gaming addiction has become an important issue affecting the physical and mental health of college students, but its formation mechanism remains incompletely understood. Based on the I-PACE (Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution) model, this study explores the influence and mechanism of sleep deprivation on emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and problematic online gaming among Chinese college students through experimental design. The study recruited 300 college students (mean age 20.5 years, 48% male) in China, randomly assigned to a sleep deprivation group (24 h awake, n = 150) and a control group (normal sleep, n = 150). Measurements were conducted using the Gaming Addiction Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Cognitive Bias Scale, and other instruments. Results showed that ERQ scores (M = 36.7, SD = 5.2) and problematic online gaming scores (M = 42.3, SD = 6.4) in the sleep deprivation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (ERQ scores: M = 28.1, SD = 4.1; problematic online gaming scores: M = 35.5, SD = 5.9), with p values all less than 0.001. Mediation analysis indicated that emotion regulation strategies (ERQ scores) partially mediated the relationship between sleep deprivation and problematic online gaming (indirect effect = 0.24, 95%CI[0.19, 0.29]). Moderation analysis revealed that cognitive bias significantly moderated the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (ERQ scores) and problematic online gaming (β = 0.32, p