The Role of Depression and Self-Esteem in Facebook Intrusion and Gaming Disorder among Young Adult Gamers

In the modern day, it is important to identify the determinants of Facebook addiction and game disorder. The main aim of our study is to examine the relationship between Facebook intrusion, gaming disorder and depression to verify whether depression mediates the relationship between these types of addiction and self-esteem. A total of 235 video game players took place in the study. We used the Facebook Intrusion Scale, Problem Videogame Playing Questionnaire, Patient Health Questionnaire and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The findings indicate that depression and frequency of use are associated with Facebook intrusion and gaming disorder. Symptoms of depression and time spent using games or Facebook are predictors of these behavioural addictions. The results indicate that depression fully mediated the relationship between self-esteem and these types of addiction. Also, our results demonstrated that the model assuming a correlation between gaming disorder and Facebook intrusion was fitted to data, while the model assuming no correlation was not fitted to data. While previous studies indicated low self-esteem as a predictor of Facebook intrusion and gaming disorder, the current findings indicate that this association is mediated by the depression. Also, our results may support hypotheses of similar addiction mechanisms in the case of gaming disorder and Facebook intrusion.