Abstract
OBJECTIVESThis study examined the association between high risk of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and online game genres used by adolescents.METHODSThe data derived from the baseline data of the Internet user Cohort for Unbiased Recognition of gaming disorder in Early Adolescence. A total 1,532 middle school students who use online games included. The participants reported the names of the online games they used during the past year. Game genres were categorized into role playing games (RPGs), shooting, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), simulation, arcade, sports and action games. The risk of IGD was measured using the Internet Gaming Use-Elicited symptom Screen. The relationship between the experience of online game genre and high risk of IGD was analyzed using multiple logistic regression model.RESULTSThe game time of a student was longer if he or she had an experience of RPGs, shooting games, MOBA games, simulation games, and action games. The direct and independent association between high risk of IGD in adolescents and the genres of RPGs, simulation games and MOBA were found to be odds ratios 1.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03 to 2.26); 1.59 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.45); and 1.51 (95% CI, 1.03 to 2.21), respectively after adjusted the potential confounding variables and the use of other online game genres.CONCLUSIONSThe present cross-sectional study has found an association between online game genres and the risk of IGD in adolescents attending a school. A cohort study should verify the causal association in future.
Highlights
Previous studies reported that the risk of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) varies according to the game genre used by an individual
Yee [3] reported that the factor driving the online role playing game (RPG) users towards gaming addiction was their immersion in the role they play in the game, through which they get a feeling of accomplishment when they win a match against someone else by creating increasingly stronger avatars throughout the game and feel satisfied with the social relationships formed in a virtual world [3]
Of 2,319 students, 1,920 first-year middle school students within the cohort included to remove the age effect based on a previous study [7], IGD is affected by individual game expertise so that its level varies according to age with respect to the game genre preferred by adolescents
Summary
Previous studies regarding the influence of online game genre on the risk of IGD included those that surveyed the names of the most preferred online games by subject and analyzed the corresponding game genres to evaluate the usage [5,6,7,8,9] as well as those that examined the most frequently used game genres [10,11,12,13] In such cases, a reverse causation effect may be observed because an increase in the risk of addiction may raise the potential preference of the user towards certain games and the probability of using such games more frequently. An unbiased estimation of the pure association between online game genres and the risk of IGD may be possible by analyzing the exposure to a diversity of online game genres during the past year
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