Developing an intense player-avatar relationship and feeling disconnected by the physical body: A pathway towards internet gaming disorder for people reporting empty feelings?

The literature suggests that alexithymia and emptiness could be risk factors for various addictive behaviors. The present study developed and tested a model that proposes a pathway leading from emptiness and difficulties in identifying emotions to Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) symptoms via an inten...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) N.J.), 2023-08, Vol.42 (24), p.20748-20756
Main Authors: Casale, Silvia, Musicò, Alessia, Gualtieri, Nicola, Fioravanti, Giulia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Alexithymia
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Diagnosis
Health aspects
Internet
Mind body relationship
Online games
Pathological Internet Use
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Social Sciences
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Summary:The literature suggests that alexithymia and emptiness could be risk factors for various addictive behaviors. The present study developed and tested a model that proposes a pathway leading from emptiness and difficulties in identifying emotions to Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) symptoms via an intense gamer-avatar relationship and bodily dissociative experiences. A sample of 285 (64.2% M; mean age = 30.38 ± 7.53) online gamers using avatar-based videogames was recruited from gaming communities, and they were asked to complete a survey that included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Subjective Emptiness scale, the Scale of Body Connection, the Self-Presence Questionnaire, and the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form. The structural model evaluated produced a good fit to the data [ χ 2  = 175.14, df  = 55, p  
ISSN:1046-1310
1936-4733
DOI:10.1007/s12144-022-03186-9