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      Disentangling the effects of empathy components on Internet gaming disorder: A study of vulnerable youth in China

      1 , 2 , 1
      Journal of Behavioral Addictions
      Akademiai Kiado Zrt.

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          Abstract

          Previous research shows that empathy can be one of the potential protective factors for Internet gaming disorder (IGD), yet the complex relationships between multidimensional factors of empathy and IGD remain understudied. Thus, a major question moving forward is to resolve the mixed empirical data by examining the specific contributions of empathy components. In this study, we disentangle the effects of cognitive component (i.e., perspective taking) and affective component (i.e., empathic concern and personal distress) on IGD symptoms and propose affect-oriented mediation pathways between them. We surveyed a large sample ( N  = 3,348) of Chinese vocational school students, one of the most vulnerable groups to online gaming addiction. Our structural equation modeling results revealed that only personal distress, but not empathic concern or perspective taking, positively predicted IGD symptoms. However, empathic concern and personal distress were negatively and positively predicted gaming motive of escape from reality, respectively, which in turn predicted IGD symptoms. Furthermore, we found an indirect effect of perspective taking on IGD through empathic concern and then gaming motive of escape from reality. The findings underscore the importance of separating the affective and cognitive components to understand the complex relationships between the empathy and IGD, and support our theorizing of the affect-oriented mediation mechanism.

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          Most cited references55

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          Problematic Internet use and psychosocial well-being: development of a theory-based cognitive–behavioral measurement instrument

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            Empathy: gender effects in brain and behavior.

            Evidence suggests that there are differences in the capacity for empathy between males and females. However, how deep do these differences go? Stereotypically, females are portrayed as more nurturing and empathetic, while males are portrayed as less emotional and more cognitive. Some authors suggest that observed gender differences might be largely due to cultural expectations about gender roles. However, empathy has both evolutionary and developmental precursors, and can be studied using implicit measures, aspects that can help elucidate the respective roles of culture and biology. This article reviews evidence from ethology, social psychology, economics, and neuroscience to show that there are fundamental differences in implicit measures of empathy, with parallels in development and evolution. Studies in nonhuman animals and younger human populations (infants/children) offer converging evidence that sex differences in empathy have phylogenetic and ontogenetic roots in biology and are not merely cultural byproducts driven by socialization. We review how these differences may have arisen in response to males' and females' different roles throughout evolution. Examinations of the neurobiological underpinnings of empathy reveal important quantitative gender differences in the basic networks involved in affective and cognitive forms of empathy, as well as a qualitative divergence between the sexes in how emotional information is integrated to support decision making processes. Finally, the study of gender differences in empathy can be improved by designing studies with greater statistical power and considering variables implicit in gender (e.g., sexual preference, prenatal hormone exposure). These improvements may also help uncover the nature of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in which one sex is more vulnerable to compromised social competence associated with impaired empathy.
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              Perspective Taking: Imagining How Another Feels Versus Imaging How You Would Feel

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal of Behavioral Addictions
                Journal of Behavioral Addictions
                Akademiai Kiado Zrt.
                2062-5871
                2063-5303
                March 2019
                March 2019
                : 8
                : 1
                : 181-189
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
                [2 ]Department of Psychology, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
                Article
                10.1556/2006.8.2019.12
                39735928-c77f-4426-b4e5-10180f9360b8
                © 2019
                History

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