Abstract
As a primary symptom defining Internet gaming disorder (IGD), preoccupation indicates a mind state in which gamers think about a gaming activity so much that other things appear less important and/or interesting to them. Previous studies have examined the negative impacts of IGD on both cognitive and affective functions, yet no study has investigated the influence of IGD on daily mind state changes that interfere with ongoing tasks. The current study hypothesized that more IGD symptoms lead to a higher frequency of mind state shift in terms of mind-wandering. As social anxiety is related to both IGD and mind-wandering, we further hypothesized that social anxiety would partially contribute to the relationship. Survey data were collected from 632 young adults who were divided into two groups based on whether they reported playing games or not. In the player group, the number of IGD symptoms present was positively related to mind-wandering (r = 0.269, p < 0.001) and social anxiety (r = 0.235, p < 0.001), with the latter two showing a positive correlation in both players (r = 0.37, p < 0.001) and non-players (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). A mediation analysis for the players showed a partial mediation effect of social anxiety on the relationship between IGD and mind-wandering (mediation effect: PM = 0.292, p < 0.001), and the model was replicated in an independent sample. This study suggests that excessive gaming behavior may increase mind-wandering and a shift towards such a non-productive mind state could exert long-term detrimental effects in adolescents and young adults.
Highlights
The popularity of Internet games has profound impacts on human society and individuals in many ways
No gender effect was found in the three measurements, while age was positively correlated with DSM score (r = 0.469, p < 0.001)
To compare the differences in mind-wandering and the level of social anxiety between non-gamers and game players with different Internet gaming disorder (IGD) severity, the game players were assigned to the following four subgroups according to Lemmens et al (2015): (1) low-risky game players (LG) that included those with DSM score lower than 3 (n = 202, Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) = 16.41 ± 4.88; Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) = 48.00 ± 22.318), (2) risky game players (RG) that included those with DSM score between 3 and 5 (n = 267, MWQ = 18.55 ± 4.67; LSAS = 56.50 ± 22.04), (3) high-risky game players (HG) that included those with DSM score higher than 5 (n = 84, MWQ = 19.85 ± 4.976; LSAS = 61.63 ± 21.78), and (4)
Summary
The popularity of Internet games has profound impacts on human society and individuals in many ways. The impact of the high prevalence of Internet gaming especially on young people is indispensable (Wang et al, 2014). Because it is so attractive to some individuals, they repeatedly spend too much time on playing games regardless of negative consequences, raising the public concern of Internet gaming disorder (IGD). To address the increasing public concern regarding the negative consequences of excessive digital gaming, official bodies, including the American Psychiatric Association (2013), have suggested the unification and consensus of IGD. Petry et al (2014) proposed nine diagnostic items for IGD, corresponding to the nine DSM-5 constructs including preoccupation, tolerance, withdrawal, persistence escape, problems, deception, displacement, and conflict (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The total number of these nine symptoms’ presence during the past 12 months is used to characterize IGD severity
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