ABSTRACT
Introduction: The strength of the association between gaming involvement and gaming disorder is weak to moderate. Gamers cannot be directly involved in gaming all the time, but how much they are involved in activities indirectly related to gaming during gaming-free time may play an important role. Also, specific game genres may matter. The present investigation focuses on the role of indirect gaming involvement and genres in gaming disorder risk prediction. Methods: Two pre-registered studies were conducted. Study 1 (N = 205) was conducted online, whereas Study 2 (N = 250) was conducted in a lab. In both cases, participants reported their direct and indirect involvement in gaming (DGI and IGI, respectively) and completed a screening tool that estimates the risk of gaming disorder (Gaming Disorder Test). Results: Both IGI and DGI were weakly to moderately correlated with gaming disorder (GD) and moderately with each other. The correlations between DGI and GD were similar to those obtained in related studies; the correlation between IGI and GD has not been previously reported. Hierarchical regression that took IGI together with DGI into account showed an increase in the percentage of explained variance, but only in Study 1. Contrary to expectations, IGI did not interact with DGI. As is consistent with previous research, some game genres were found to be more closely related to GD than others: in both studies, this was an RPG; in Study 1, this was also an MMORPG; in Study 2, driving and shooting games also predicted GD risk. Discussion: Overall, the results clearly indicate that not only gaming time plays a role in GD risk assessment: IGI can also predict it and in some cases may allow for more accurate predictions. Gaming genres once again proved to play a role, but these and similar results should be treated with caution due to the partial lack of repeatability.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To determine whether psychiatric and gaming pattern variables are associated with gaming disorder in a school-based sample. Methods: We analyzed data from the Brazilian High-Risk Cohort for Psychiatric Disorders, a community sample aged 10 to 18, using questionnaires on gaming use patterns. We applied the Gaming Addiction Scale to diagnose gaming disorder and the Development and Well-Being Behavior Assessment for other diagnoses. Results: Out of 407 subjects, 83 (20.4%) fulfilled the criteria for gaming disorder. More role-playing game players were diagnosed with gaming disorder that any other genre. Gaming disorder rates increased proportionally to the number of genres played. Playing online, being diagnosed with a mental disorder, and more hours of non-stop gaming were associated with higher rates of gaming disorder. When all variables (including age and gender) were considered in a logistic regression model, the number of genres played, the number of non-stop hours, the proportion of online games, and having a diagnosed mental disorder emerged as significant predictors of gaming disorder. Conclusion: Each variable seems to add further risk of gaming disorder among children and adolescents. Monitoring the length of gaming sessions, the number and type of genres played, time spent gaming online, and behavior changes may help parents or guardians identify unhealthy patterns of gaming behavior.
Subject(s)
Humans , Child , Adolescent , Behavior, Addictive/diagnosis , Behavior, Addictive/epidemiology , Video Games , Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders , Schools , Brazil/epidemiology , InternetABSTRACT
Jugar a videojuegos es una de las actividades de ocio más popularesen adolescentes. El principal objetivo de este estudio fue examinarlos efectos aditivos y de moderación del género y la personalidad enel juego problemático y en la preferencia en géneros de videojuegosdurante la adolescencia. 776 estudiantes españoles (media de edad =14,29; DT = 1,59; 50,64% chicas) cumplimentaron cuestionarios delModelo de los cinco grandes de personalidad y de conductas relacionadas con videojuegos. Se observaron diferencias de género enconductas relacionadas con videojuegos: los chicos jugaban más ypresentaron mucho más uso problemático que las chicas. Ellos prefirieron géneros competitivos; por ejemplo, juegos de acción-shooters, deportes, lucha y estrategia. Las chicas prefirieron géneros no violentosy ocasionales; por ejemplo, simulación social, y juegos de habilidad ylógica. El género moderó las asociaciones entre personalidad y juegoproblemático: el juego problemático se asoció a baja amabilidad y bajaresponsabilidad en chicos, y a baja extraversión y baja responsabilidad en chicas. La baja responsabilidad moderó las asociaciones entrefrecuencia de juego y uso problemático: jugar más a videojuegos conducía a un uso problemático de éstos, principalmente en individuosirresponsables e impulsivos. Se encontraron asociaciones pequeñaspero significativas entre la personalidad y preferencias en géneros devideojuegos. Estos hallazgos destacan la relevancia del género y la personalidad en las conductas relacionadas con videojuegos durante laadolescencia, y animan a prestar más atención a las diferencias dependientes del género y a las transacciones persona-ambiente al estudiarestas conductas. (AU)
Playing video games is one of the worlds most popular leisure activities, especially for teenagers. The main aim of the present study was toexamine additive and moderation effects of gender and personality toexplain individual differences in problematic gaming and video gamegenre preferences in adolescence. 776 Spanish high school students(mean age = 14.29 years, SD = 1.59, 50.64% girls) completed the questionnaires of the Five-Factor Model of personality, frequency of videogaming, disordered use, and the video games they mostly played.Gender differences were observed for gaming behaviors: boys playedmore and presented much more disordered gaming than girls. Boyspreferred competitive genres; for example, action-shooters, sport, fightand strategy games. Girls preferred nonviolent and ocasional gamegenres; for example, social simulation, and brain and skill games.Gender moderated the association between personality and disordered gaming: disordered gaming was associated with low agreeableness and low conscientiousness in boys, and with low extraversion andlow conscientiousness in girls. Low consciousnness moderated theassociation between gaming frequency and problematic use of videogames: playing more video games led to disordered gaming, mainlyin irresponsible and impulsive individuals. Though small, significantassociations were found among all of the personality domains andvid- eo game genre preferences. These findings highlight the relevance of gender and personality for gaming behaviors in adolescence,and suggest paying more attention to gender-dependent differencesand person-environment transactional processes when studying gaming-related behaviors. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Adolescent , Video Games/adverse effects , Video Games/psychology , Gender Identity , Personality/classification , Addiction Medicine , Spain , Surveys and Questionnaires , Gender StudiesABSTRACT
Video gaming is an extremely popular leisure-time activity with more than two billion users worldwide (Newzoo, 2017). However, the media as well as professionals have underscored the potential dangers of excessive video gaming. With the present research, we aimed to shed light on the relation between video gaming and gamers' psychological functioning. Questionnaires on personality and psychological health as well as video gaming habits were administered to 2,734 individuals (2,377 male, 357 female, M age = 23.06, SD age = 5.91). Results revealed a medium-sized negative correlation between problematic video gaming and psychological functioning with regard to psychological symptoms, affectivity, coping, and self-esteem. Moreover, gamers' reasons for playing and their preferred game genres were differentially related to psychological functioning with the most notable findings for distraction-motivated players as well as action game players. Future studies are needed to examine whether these psychological health risks reflect the causes or consequences of video gaming.