Adolescent gaming and parent–child emotional closeness: bivariate relationships in a longitudinal perspective

Abstract

The aim of this study was to add knowledge of the longitudinal associations between gaming and emotional closeness between parents and their children. We hypothesized that parent–child emotional closeness was linked to less gaming activity over time and that more gaming activity was linked to less parent–child emotional closeness over time. We also tested the moderating effect of child gender on these anticipated links. This study involved a sample of Swedish adolescents, spanning the developmental years from age 12.5 to 17, and included data from two time points (T1; year 2013 and T2; years 2017/2018) with N = 782 participants (T1 Mage = 12.10, SD = 0.40; 49.6% girls). Utilizing a series of Cross-Lagged Panel Models, we found that emotional closeness to both mother and father predicted less time spent on gaming over time. More time spent on gaming predicted less emotional closeness to mother over time. Additionally, gaming activity among girls was specifically related to less emotional closeness to their father over time. Strengthening parent–child relationships and emotional bonds may be crucial in safeguarding adolescents from developing habits of excessive gaming that could potentially pose problems for their psychosocial development.