Academic stress weakens mental flexibility and creates dependence on gaming

China’s highly competitive education system is known for its strict assessment, rigorous intensity and academic pressure. A recent study highlights the growing problem of study pressure among Chinese teenagers, which is pushing them towards online gaming. While earlier studies were able to prove the connection between academic burnout and behavioral addictions, this study highlights how academic burnout can lead to Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD), and explains how depression and negative attention work in a chain reaction to increase the overall risk.

To this end, a research team led by Professor Liping Jia and Professor Guohua Lu of the Department of Psychology at Shandong Second Medical School in China conducted extensive research with more than 2,000 students from grades 7 to 9. According to the study, students struggling with academic burnout often turn to Internet gaming as a form of distraction and self-verification. Published online 24 March 2026 pediatric checkup According to the journal, the study emphasizes that Internet gaming provides a feeling of immediate accomplishment, but that this temporary feeling can quickly turn into dependence. It focused on the need for specific prevention strategies to reduce IGD and improve the mental health status of Chinese adolescents.

The study found that depression in adolescents is a major factor linking academic burnout and IGD, and students who are burned out are more likely to experience less motivation and frustration in day-to-day activities. Due to these emotional difficulties, students turn to Internet gaming as a means of coping.

According to our research, academic burnout activates internal psychological pathways in adolescents, in which affective factors, especially depressive symptoms, play a central mediating role in IGD. Adolescents experiencing burnout are more likely to make negative attributions about their learning and self-worth, which can lead to or exacerbate depressive symptoms.”

Liping Jia, Department of Psychology, Shandong Second Medical School

In addition to depression, another important factor that mediates the relationship between academic burnout and adolescent IGD is negative attention bias. Specifically, higher levels of academic burnout were associated with stronger negative attentional bias, which in turn predicted greater IGD severity. A plausible explanation may be that academic burnout, as a chronic state of psychological exhaustion, weakens attentional control and increases the processing of negative information and attentional bias, making individuals more sensitive to failure-related or aversive cues.

This study strengthens the claim that depressive symptoms and negative attentional biases mediate the relationship between academic burnout and adolescent IGD. “Adolescents, when feeling academically stressed and emotionally exhausted, develop negative thinking and turn to Internet gaming for solace, which reduces their ability to handle real-life situations. This cycle continues and leads to an increase in IGD.” Professor Lu explains.

The researchers found that understanding this mechanism is important for designing targeted prevention strategies for adolescents under academic stress. Schools can organize mental health check-up camps and counseling sessions for teenagers struggling with IGD to help reduce academic stress and create a more balanced learning environment. Researchers also found that evidence-based programs, including stress management and positive psychology courses, can further strengthen students’ resilience and emotion-regulation abilities. High-risk students may benefit from therapy sessions and group-based stress-reduction programs. Importantly, attentional bias modification training may help redirect adolescents’ attention resources toward positive information, thereby reducing the negative impact of gaming behavior and reducing the risk of IGD.

The researchers say further long-term research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind the negative effects of academic stress and Internet gaming on adolescents. Internet gaming addiction in teens is deeply linked to stress, attention-related issues and mental health challenges, and as the pressure to perform better in education increases, it becomes even more important to look beyond just screen time and address these deeper issues.