The Influence Of Game Motivation On College Students’ Game Dependence:a Moderated Mediation Model

Online games are by far the most widespread form of entertainment,according to the Aurora Big Data report,the average daily active users of the national phenomenon game "King of Glory" have reached 59.81 million,of which college students account for 54.9%,or about 32.85 million.There is a clear need to prevent and intervene in the problem of gaming behavior among college students.Use and satisfaction theory suggests that psychological motivation drives an individual’s gaming behavior and that overuse of gaming behavior can have a negative impact on the individual.Previous research has explored the impact of gaming motivation on gaming behavior,research on other mediating and moderating factors affecting the relationship and their mechanisms of action is inconsistent.Avatars are a core element of online games and can subconsciously cause players to become emotionally connected to them over the course of the game,leading to attachment to the game character,which can easily induce incarnation identification,which may have a significant negative effect on an individual’s gaming behavior.However,the effects of avatar identification are not invariant and there are moderating effects between avatar identification and its outcome variables.According to expectancy-value theory,future time perspective,as a positive belief in the future,has an important protective effect on individuals’ play behavior and may mitigate the negative effects of avatar identity.Therefore,this study examines the mediating effect of avatar identity in the influence of internal and external play motivation on play dependence based on use and satisfaction theory and expectancy-value theory,while further exploring whether this mediating effect is moderated by future time perspective based on the protective role of future time perspective.Using the Game Motivation Scale,Avatar Identity Scale,Game Dependence Scale and Future Time Perspective Scale to investigate and study 532 college student gamers.Data were analyzed with SPSS 25.0 and SPSS PROCESS 3.5 written by Hayes.The result indicated:(1)Internal game motivation and external game motivation can significantly and positively predict college students’ game dependence,i.e.,the stronger the college students’ game motivation,the greater the likelihood of their game dependence.(2)Avatar identity partially mediates the relationship between internal game motivation and game dependence,i.e.,internal game motivation of college students can directly influence game dependence and indirectly influence game dependence through the mediation of avatar identity.(3)Avatar identity fully mediates the relationship between external play motivation and play dependence,i.e.,external play motivation only influences play dependence through the mediation of avatar identity.(4)Future time perspective moderated the latter half of the mediating role of internal game motivation in influencing play dependence through avatar identity,i.e.,the mediating effect of avatar identity in internal game motivation and play dependence of college students decreased as the level of future time perspective increased,implying that future time perspective weakened the positive mediating role of avatar identity in internal game motivation and play dependence of college students.The findings of the study help to reveal the influence of internal and external game motivation on college students’ game dependence and its potential mechanisms,and have implications for the prevention and control of college students’ game dependence tendencies.