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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to assess video-gaming habits and pathological behavior in children. The Video Game Scale—For Children (VGS-C) was developed by adapting the VGS—For Adolescents (VGS-A). The final scale was composed of two sections: Section A, with unscored items, assessing a wide series of video-gaming habits, and Section B, with scored items, measuring pathological use of video games by adapting the DSM—5 criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder. Participants were 201 children attending primary school in Italy (47% males; mean age = 8.7 years). Concerning Section A, preferred video games, daily frequency of video-gaming, used devices, amount of time spent on video game sessions, gaming on Internet, preferred online video games, and social partners in playing video games, were analyzed. Regarding Section B, Confirmatory Factor Analysis attested the hypothesized one-factor structure, and an adequate reliability was found. The association of video-gaming habits with pathological video-gaming attested the validity of the scale. Tolerance and escape were the pathological symptoms more frequently experienced by children. Findings suggest that the VGS-C could be a valuable instrument to assess video-gaming habits and pathological behavior in children.
Highlights
IntroductionConcerning time spent on gaming, 19% of children play 2 - 3 hours per week and 10% more than 4 hours per week (Nogueira et al, 2019), while the average time playing video games was found to be about four hours per week (Hastings et al, 2009; Lobel et al, 2017)
Regarding time spent on a video game session, 47% of the children played less than one hour, 24% between one and two hours, 10% between two and four hours, and 19% more than four hours per day
Given the potentials of the Item Response Theory (IRT), useful to weight the specific severity of each symptom in children, wider samples of children would be useful to apply these models in order to more deeply analyze the psychometric properties of the Video Game Scale—For Children (VGS-C)
Summary
Concerning time spent on gaming, 19% of children play 2 - 3 hours per week and 10% more than 4 hours per week (Nogueira et al, 2019), while the average time playing video games was found to be about four hours per week (Hastings et al, 2009; Lobel et al, 2017). Taking into account younger children (6 - 11 years old), they spend 3.4 hours per week on average playing video games (Hastings et al, 2009), with 20% who spend more than 5 hours a week playing video games, and 40% who game from 1 to 5 hours a week (Kovess-Masfety et al, 2016). Children used to play video games alone, or together with friends, siblings (Hastings et al, 2009; Nogueira et al, 2019), or parents (Hastings et al, 2009)
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