The Impact Of College Students’ Self-concept Clarity On Game Addiction: The Chain Mediating Effect Of Reality Ideal Self Difference And Avatar Identification

As a global popular entertainment,video games are accepted by more and more players.They become more and more realistic and interactive,which not only enriches the extracurricular life of college students,but also brings the risk of game addiction.College students are in the critical period of forming self-concept,and individuals with unclear self-concept tend to indulge in games.Role playing game has always been a high-risk game type of game addiction,which provides a virtual world full of immersion for game players.The players of role-playing games can interact with the game world by creating the media which connects them with the virtual world game avatar,and express their ideal self and improve their self-concept by customizing their different attributes and characteristics.Therefore,video games through game avatars can be seen as a way to develop self-identity,but the identity of game avatars also increases the potential risk of game addiction.It is a new perspective to study the internal mechanism of game addiction from the perspective of virtual game avatar.It can also provide suggestions for the prevention and intervention of College Students’ game addiction.In order to explore the relationship among self-concept clarity,reality ideal self difference,avatar identity and game addiction of college students.Based on the theory of self difference,571 college students were investigated with the ideal reality self difference questionnaire,self-concept clarity questionnaire,avatar identity scale and game addiction scale.The results show that:(1)there are significant gender and grade differences in the level of game addiction,boys’ game addiction level is higher than girls,junior students’ game addiction level is significantly higher than Sophomores’ game addiction level;(2)there are significant gender differences in Avatar identity,boys’ Avatar identity is higher than girls;(3)there are significant gender differences in self-concept clarity The self-concept clarity of female students was significantly higher than that of male students;(4)the self-concept clarity had a significant negative impact on the reality ideal self difference,avatar identity and game addiction;(5)the self-concept clarity could have a significant negative impact on the game addiction through the intermediary role of avatar identity;(6)the self-concept clarity could be achieved through the reality ideal self The chain mediating effect of difference and avatar identity has a significant negative impact on game addiction.The results confirmed the hypothesis of this study and obtained the chain mediation model of this study.The results show that players’ self-concept will affect the understanding and identification of avatars in the game,thus affecting the game addiction.The findings of this study provide a new perspective for the intervention and treatment of College Students’ game addiction.We can understand the characteristics of their real and ideal selves by analyzing their recognition of game avatars,and promote their better acceptance of self and self-efficacy by improving their real self and self-esteem,so as to prevent and control game addiction.