The association between problematic online gaming and perceived stress: The moderating effect of psychological resilience.

: Vulnerability to stress appears to be a potential predisposing factor for developing specificinternet-use disorders, such as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). Studies investigating the protective effect ofpsychological resilience against the impact of perceived stress on IGD and weekly gameplay have yet to be reportedin the existing literature. The aim of this study was to examine the potential moderating relationships betweenperceived stress and online gaming (more specifically operationalized as IGD and weekly gameplay) withpsychological resilience. Methods: An online survey was administered to 605 participants (males = 82%,Mage = 24.01 years, SDage = 6.11). A multivariate multiple regression model was applied to test for the possiblecontribution of perceived stress and psychological resilience to weekly gameplay and IGD. Results: Perceived stresswas associated with higher scores of IGD, whereas psychological resilience was related to lower scores of IGD. Inaddition, the combination of having higher perceived stress and lower level of psychological resilience was associatedwith a particularly high hours of gameplay per week. Discussion and conclusions: These findings further support theimportance of personal traits (perceived stress and psychological resilience) in online gaming (IGD severity andweekly gameplay), and also emphasize the unique moderating relationship between perceived stress and weeklygameplay with lack of resilience. Enhancing psychological resilience to decrease the likelihood of online gamers whoexperience higher level of stress from spending more hours per week gaming is recommended