Abstract
BackgroundElectronic gaming is a popular free-time activity and its deleterious effects have been considered by the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization. More recently ‘Gaming Disorder’ (GD) has been added to the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, while ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) remains as a tentative disorder in the 5th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of young gamers at risk for developing IGD.MethodsTo achieve this, a quantitative and nationally representative study was conducted in primary schools in Slovenia with eighth grade as the primary sampling unit (N = 1071, Meanage = 13.44 years, SDage = 0.59). Psychometric testing assessing IGD was conducted to identify participants’ IGD risk levels and to compare ‘high risk gamers’, ‘low risk gamers’, and ‘non-gamers’ in relation to free-time activities, self-control, and parent-child relationship. A one-way ANOVA analysis was conducted with Games-Howell post-hoc test to compare the three groups of participants. Statistically significant IGD factors were then included in a multinomial logistic regression analysis to identify the most relevant predictors of IGD.ResultsAbout 4.7% (n = 48) [95% CI: 3.4–6.0%] of Slovenian adolescents were found to be ‘high risk gamers’ when considering risk of IGD. These were mostly males (n = 42, 87.5%), and their preferred leisure activities involved more screen time activities (e.g., watching TV, playing video games, using social media). Moreover, ‘high risk gamers’ showed significantly lower levels of self-control compared to ‘low risk gamers’, and poorer understanding with their parents. Perceived satisfaction with life and mental health did not differ significantly between the three groups. The multinomial logistic regression identified four key predictors of IGD: male gender, gaming as a frequent free-time activity, attending music school or a choir and self-control.ConclusionPublic health measures should target adolescents at increased risk of developing IGD in early age because they are particularly drawn to excessive gaming behaviors and present greater IGD vulnerability.
Highlights
Electronic gaming is a popular free-time activity and its deleterious effects have been considered by the American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization
Comparison of the three groups of participants Based on the aforementioned operationalization, about 4.7% (n = 48) [95% CI: 3.4–6.0%] of the total sample was classified as ‘high risk gamers’ due to potentially meeting a positive Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) diagnosis
A systematic literature review on IGD by Paulus et al showed that IGD may be observed up to five times more often among male children than female children [7], and the present study showed that male gender was an important predictor of disordered gaming, a finding that was reported across several past studies [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16, 19]
Summary
More recently ‘Gaming Disorder’ (GD) has been added to the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases, while ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) remains as a tentative disorder in the 5th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Given how pervasive gaming is, among younger individuals, concerns have emerged regarding disordered gaming behaviors, leading the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to include ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) within Section III of the fifth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a tentative disorder requiring further research [2]. Griffiths et al [5] found prevalence rates ranging from 0.2 to 34% and reported that disparities may be due to different sample sizes, distinct age range, sampling characteristics (general population vs gamers only), type of gaming activity assessed, and psychometric test used to assess disordered gaming [6]. In representative samples of children and adolescents, previous findings reported that about 2% are likely to be affected by IGD [7], with a similar prevalence rate of 2.5% being found among Slovenian adolescents [8]
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