Abstract
Background: ‘Gaming Disorder’ (GD) has received increased medical attention and official recognition from both the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Although these two medical organizations have independently developed promising clinical diagnostic frameworks to assess disordered gaming, little is known about how these frameworks compare at different psychometric levels in terms of producing consistent outcomes in the assessment of GD. Methods: A sample of 1429 German gamers (Meanage = 29.74 years; SD = 12.37 years) completed an online survey including measures on different psychopathological symptoms (depression, loneliness and attention problems), gaming motives and disordered gaming according to the WHO and APA frameworks. Results: The findings suggest the existence of minor discrepancies in the estimation of prevalence rates of GD according among the two frameworks. Nevertheless, both diagnostic frameworks are fairly consistent in the psychometric prediction of GD in relation to gaming motives and psychopathological symptoms. The findings underscore the role of key gaming motives as risk factors and protective factors across both diagnostic frameworks. Finally, the study provides support for the WHO diagnostic framework for GD and its measurement with the German Gaming Disorder Test (GDT). The findings and their implications are further discussed in terms of clinical relevance.
Highlights
Research on the addictive effects of video games has recently witnessed key major developments at both theoretical and clinical levels that played a significant role in the recent official recognition of ‘Gaming Disorder’ (GD) as an official behavioral addiction by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]
Given the obvious discrepancies in the two GD diagnostic frameworks put forth by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the WHO, the first aim of the present study was to provide a robust psychometric comparison of both diagnostic frameworks in terms of how GD can be explained by psychopathological symptoms through specific gaming motives and at the same time investigate potential effects in relation to GD prevalence rates stemming from the choice of the diagnostic framework
It is unclear to what extent the obvious diagnostic differences pertaining to both the APA and WHO frameworks may have an effect on the way in which GD intertwines with psychopathological symptoms, gaming motives and how such discrepancies may lead to potential bias in the estimation of prevalence rates of disordered gaming in future research
Summary
Research on the addictive effects of video games has recently witnessed key major developments at both theoretical and clinical levels that played a significant role in the recent official recognition of ‘Gaming Disorder’ (GD) as an official behavioral addiction by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1]. According to Pontes and Griffiths [2], the first major milestone for GD research took place in 2013 when the (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) tentatively included ‘Internet Gaming Disorder’ (IGD) as a clinical phenomenon in need of further research [3]. Following this preliminarily recognition, the second milestone occurred when GD emerged in the beta draft of the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2016 [4]. The WHO further specifies that differential diagnosis of GD can be achieved by screening for the following exclusion criteria: hazardous gaming, bipolar type I and type II disorders [4]
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