Association between Father Parenting Styles and Game Addiction with the Mediating Effect of Aggression among College Students

Introduction: The present study was carried out to examine the association between father parenting styles and game addiction among college students as well as to explore the mediating effect of aggression between them. Method: The design of the research was correlation. A total of 150 participants comprised of boys and girls,with the age range of 17 to 21 years, were recruited through purposive sampling from different colleges of Lahore, Pakistan. The questionnaires used in this studyincluded the Gaming Addiction Scale (Brief version), Parental Authority Questionnaire (short version), and the Aggression Scale. All the hypotheses were tested by using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis and Meditation analysis through PROCESS. Results: Results revealed that fathers' authoritative style had a negative non-significant association (p>.001), while authoritarian and permissive styles had a positive significant association with game addiction (p<.001). Aggression had a mediating effect between two father parenting styles and game addiction: authoritarian and permissive.    Conclusion: It is therefore concluded that father parenting styles affect the game addiction behavior and aggression plays a mediating role between them. This fact will definitelyhelp parents and psychologists in addressing major reasons behind game addiction.