BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.14, No.1, 2023 1763 

 

 

 

 

Technoference and Adolescent Internet Gaming Ad-

diction: The Mediating Role of the Need to Belong and 

the Moderating Role of Friendship Quality 

By Ding, Z. E. & Liu, Q. X. 
Correspondence to: Qinxue Liu, Central China Normal University, China. E-

mail: qinxueliu@mail.ccnu.edu.cn  

NTERNET gaming, a product of information technology, has become an 

essential part of adolescents’ lives. While a moderate amount of online 

gaming helps improve their life satisfaction and promote their pro-social be-

havior, the Internet gaming addiction can lead to various mental problems 

among them. This study constructed a moderated mediation model based on 

the problem behavior theory and the individual-environment interaction 

models to examine the effects of technoference, the need to belong, and 

friendship quality on adolescent Internet gaming addiction. 

The study recruited as subjects 1,555 boy students and 1,512 girl stu-

dents aged between 11 and 16 from two junior secondary schools in Hubei 

Province. Measurement tools included the Technology Interference in Life 

Examples Scale, Need to Belong Scale, Friendship Quality Scale, and Inter-

net Gaming Addiction Scale.  

The research findings demonstrated that: (1) technoference positively 

predicted adolescents’ Internet gaming addiction; (2) the need to belong par-

tially mediated the relationship between technoference and adolescent’s In-

ternet gaming addiction, indicating that the need to belong was an important 

explanatory factor in the impact of technoference on adolescent’s Internet 

gaming addiction and that proper control of parental use of mobile phones 

has the potential of enhancing the quality of child-parent interaction to better 

meet the child’s need to belong; (3) friendship quality moderated the influ-

ence of technoference on the need to belong as well as the impact of friend-

ship quality on Internet gaming addiction. Specifically, technoference had a 

weaker impact on the need to belong and the need to belong imposed a 

smaller effect on Internet gaming addiction among adolescents with high 

friendship quality than among those with low friendship quality. 

 

 

Source: Journal of Psychological Science, 2022;45(6):1383-1389. 

I 

mailto:qinxueliu@mail.ccnu.edu.cn