Structural Equation Modeling About the Domestic Violence Exposure On Adolescent's Internet Game Addiction: Focus On Parental Attachment As Mediator

Purpose : Many preceding studies on internet game addiction point out in common that the most important cause of internet game addiction is the domestic violence exposure among diverse domestic environmental factors. However, most of the preceding studies provide for very limited information about the pathways through which the domestic violence exposure leads to internet game addiction. Thus, this study focuses on the parental attachment in the pathway from domestic violence exposure to internet game addiction. To this end, this study attempted to examine the mediate effects of adolescent's parental attachment experience of being abused by parents and their exposure to violence between their parents on their parental attachment in order to provide for practical basis useful to prevention of and intervention in the internet game addiction.

Method : Using data from ‘2010 National Study of Domestic Violence’. 790 Korean adolescents(44.1% male, 55.9% femael) from seventh grade to eleventh grade completed paper-pencil surveys. Adolescent's experience of being abused by parents/exposure to violence between their parents was measured by the CTS2 scale(Straus et al., 1996). Internet game addiction was measured by internet game addiction scale(Lee, 2000). Parental attachment was measured by Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment(Amsden & Greenberg, 1987). Data analyses included descriptive statistics and SEM(Structural Equation Modeling).

Results : Outcome data suggested that adolescents' experience of being abused by parents had significant direct effects on their internet game addiction. However, exposure to violence between their parents had no significant direct effects on their internet game addiction. Experience of being abused by parents and exposure to violence between their parents had significant indirect effects on their internet game addiction. All in all, parental attachment was confirmed as an mediate factor in the relationship between their experience of being abused by parents/ exposure to violence between their parents and their internet game addiction.

Implication : The finding that adolescents' experience of being abused by parents has direct effects on their internet game addiction suggests that families should be a reference point for intervening internet game addiction.  Social work practice from this study were discussed.