The roles of need satisfaction and passion in symptoms of behavioral addiction: The case of video gaming and gambling.

Abstract

Integrating theoretical frameworks on psychological need satisfaction and passion, we suggest that a pathway toward behavioral addiction is the development of an obsessive passion for an activity. In two studies with samples of video game players (Study 1) and gamblers (Study 2) we considered need satisfaction and passion as motivational antecedents of symptoms of behavioral addiction. Additionally, Study 2 focused on different sources of need satisfaction (global and context-specific) to better understand the origins of passion and its role in behavioral addiction. Results of both studies suggested that harmonious passion for the activity was positively related to life satisfaction and unrelated to symptoms of behavioral addiction, while obsessive passion was positively related to symptoms of addiction. Furthermore, both studies found that need satisfaction within the activity was positively associated with the development of passion. However, lower levels of global need satisfaction were uniquely positively associated with higher levels of symptoms of behavioral addiction through the indirect effect of obsessive passion (Study 2). Overall, these findings point to a compensatory model such that high levels of obsessive passion may lead to symptoms of behavioral addiction when context-specific need satisfaction is high and global need satisfaction is low. This represents the first research to test the role of need satisfaction and passion in symptoms of behavioral addiction in two domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)