Gaming among female adolescents: profiling and psychopathological characteristics in the Indian context.

Objectives: Gaming is a predominant leisure time activity among adolescents, and the literature suggests that unrestrained gaming behavior might lead to gaming disorder. ICD-11 and DSM-5 have recognized gaming disorder as a psychiatric condition and grouped it under the behavioral addiction category. Research on gaming behavior and addiction is largely based on data from the male population, and problematic gaming has largely been understood from the male perspective. In this study, we are attempting to bridge the existing lacuna in the literature by exploring gaming behavior, gaming disorder, and its related psychopathological characteristics among female adolescents in India. Methods: The study was conducted on a sample of 707 female adolescent participants who were contacted through schools and academic institutes in a city in Southern India. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design, and data were administered using the mixed modality of online and offline data collection. The participants filled out the following set of questionnaires: socio-demographic sheet, Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Rosenberg self-esteem scale, and Brief sensation-seeking scale (BSSS-8). The data gathered from the participants were then statistically analyzed using SPSS software version 26. Results: The descriptive statistics revealed that 0.8% of the sample (i.e., five participants out of 707) obtained scores meeting gaming addiction criteria. Correlation analysis demonstrated a significant relationship between all the psychological variables with total IGD scale scores (p < 0.05). Total SDQ, total BSSS-8, and domain scores of SDQ, such as emotional symptoms, conduct, hyperactivity, and peer problems, were positively correlated, whereas total Rosenberg scores and domain scores of prosocial behaviors of SDQ were negatively correlated. The Mann-Whitney U-test was employed to compare "with gaming disorder" and "without gaming disorder" categories of female participants. Comparing these two groups revealed significant differences in emotional symptoms, conduct, hyperactivity/inattention, peer problem, and self-esteem scale scores. Furthermore, quantile regression was computed, showing that conduct, peer problem, and self-esteem displayed trend-level prediction for gaming disorder. Conclusion: Female adolescents prone to gaming addiction can be identified through psychopathological characteristics of conduct, peer problem, and low self-esteem. This understanding can be useful in developing a theoretical model focusing on early screening and preventive strategies for at-risk female adolescents.

Doomsurfing and doomscrolling mediate psychological distress in COVID-19 lockdown: Implications for awareness of cognitive biases.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a significant increase in the consumption of the internet for work, leisure time activities, and has also generated substantial amounts of anxiety, and uncertainty, which has lead individuals to spend a lot of time surfing the internet for the latest news on developments in the COVID-19 crisis. This ends up as scrolling or surfing through a lot of pessimistic news items. This search for information during COVID-19 is apparently influenced by a number of cognitive biases as well as mediated by poor affect regulation skills. Thus, there is a need to address these cognitive biases and promote affect regulation strategies across health settings.

Constructing the understanding of teenagers deviant use of cyberspace.

Cyberspace provides a completely different platform for the expression of one's needs in comparison to the face-to-face world. The use of cyberspace by teenagers is becoming a major concern due to the emergence of engagement in deviant use of internet applications inclusive of engagement in sexting; excessive and addictive use of the internet, consumption of pornography, and as well as phenomena of internet chat rooms. The online disinhibition, anonymity, personality factors, sensation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, deviant socialization processes, and absence of social systems to educate adolescents about gender sensitivity and sex appear to predispose teenagers for indulgence in deviant usage of cyberspace. There is an urgent need to understand the factors related to deviant use of cyberspace and for offering programs for parents and adolescents on gender sensitivity, sexuality, sex, consent in relationships, and deviant use of internet applications. Such initiatives will help to offer opportunities for a corrective experience through appropriate socialization experiences and enhance cyberliteracy among children and adolescents.

Digital failure: An emerging reason of anger expression among adolescents.

Network connectivity can often lead to positive as well as negative mood states among regular Internet users. Recently, studies have mainly focused on the impact of Internet abuse/addiction on the various aspects of the individual, in terms of cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal domains. However, one of the issues that is not much reported are the issues about what happens to the children who are not able to access the internet due to connectivity issues. Given this, the current article discusses two cases with negative emotional and behavioral manifestations of increased anger and frustration due to reduced Internet connectivity. This can help draw more research and attention to the need for increased cyber-literacy and incorporation of anger management programs into psychological interventions that address Internet Addiction.

Pathways of migration from gaming to gambling.

Gaming and gambling have been studied in terms of similarity of its manifestations. There is a dearth of empirical-based evidence for the exploration of pathways to understand the shift from gaming to gambling. A 23-year-old male from a nuclear family was assessed using clinical interview for the pathways for shifting from gaming to gambling. The pathways were personality predispositions, maladaptive coping, interpersonal distress, peer pressure, variable reward anticipation, addiction characteristics in the form of craving, loss of control and use despite having consequences. These findings suggest that there is a need to create awareness among young adults about these potential causes related to transition from gaming to gambling.

Urban and rural pattern of Internet use among youth and its association with mood state.

INTRODUCTION: The problematic use of internet is associated with dysfunction life style. The emerging evidence do also suggest its impact on user's mood profile. There is need to establish the urban and rural difference in relation to internet use as well as its association with mood states and its implications for primary care setting. METHODS: The present work explored the pattern of internet use in Urban and Rural area and its impact on mood states. 731 individuals (403 males and 328 females) in the age group of 18-25 years from urban and rural areas were approached for the study. The internet addiction test and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale were administered in group setting. Results indicated no significant difference in term of internet use as well as in term for gender. Significant difference was seen for internet use and mood states. RESULTS: The results indicate no significant difference in terms of internet use pattern and gender in relation to urban and rural areas. However, a significant difference exists with respect to Internet use and its relation to depression, anxiety and stress. CONCLUSIONS: It implies the development of early brief intervention for Primary Physicians to enable them to screening psychological conditions along with internet use as well as help users to have healthy use of technology.