| The purpose of the present study was to examine the links among addiction-related behaviours (specifically problem gambling, internet misuse, and problematic video/computer game addiction) as well as to examine the relationship between these addiction-related behaviours and affect regulation abilities in samples of both community (N = 605) and clinical (N = 201) adolescents. Emotional intelligence was measured using the youth version of the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i: YV; Bar-On & Parker, 2000), alexithymia was measured using the 20 item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby et al., 1994), and the addiction-related behaviors were assessed using the Internet Addiction Questionnaire (IADQ; Young, 1998), the Problem Video Game Playing Scale (PVGS; Salguero & Moran, 2002), and the South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA; Winters, Stinchfield, & Fulkerson, 1993). The present study provided preliminary evidence suggesting that addiction-related behaviours including problematic video game playing, internet addiction, and problem gambling can be accounted for by an underlying dysfunctional preoccupation variable, and that affect regulation is a significant predictor of dysfunctional preoccupation. |
