The Mediating Effect of Academic Failure Tolerance on Relationship between Self-efficacy and Game Addiction among Middle School Students
The objective of this study was to compare the differences between males and females in the mediating effects of academic failure tolerance on the impact of self-efficacy on game addiction among adolescents. The results are summarized as follows. First, in both men and women, self-regulation, one of sub-variables of self-efficacy, had negative effects on game addiction. Second, in men, both emotion and behavior had negative effects on game addiction, while, in women, only behaviour did so. Third, among sub-variables of self-efficacy, in males, self-regulation and task difficulty had positive effects on academic failure tolerance, while, in women, self-regulation, confidence, and task difficulty did so. Fourth, testing the mediating role of academic failure tolerance in the effect of self-efficacy on game addiction showed that there was a partial mediating effect among males, while there was a perfect mediating effect among females. All this implies that there is a need to develop programs that help students maintain positive emotions and behaviors even after they have experienced academic failure, considering the importance of academic failure tolerance for students.