The Relationship Between Video Games and Psychological Function
With over two billion players globally, video gaming is an enormously popular pastime (Newzoo, 2017). However, both the media and experts have emphasized the possible hazards of excessive video gaming. The current study intended to provide insight on the relationship between video gaming and psychological functioning in gamers. Questionnaires on personality, psychological health, and video gaming behaviors were given to 2,734 people (2,377 men, 357 women, Mage = 23.06, SDage = 5.91). The findings indicated a somewhat unfavorable association between problematic video gaming and psychological functioning in terms of psychological symptoms, affectivity, coping, and self-esteem. Furthermore, gamers’ motivations for playing and favorite game genres were shown to be differently connected to psychological functioning, with the most striking outcomes for distraction-motivated and action game players. Future research is needed to determine if these psychological health concerns are caused by or as a result of video gaming.
Introduction
Adults like video gaming as a kind of entertainment (Pew Research Center, 2018). The amount of time spent playing video games has gradually grown, from 5.1 hours per week in 2011 to 6.5 hours per week in 2017. (The Nielsen Company, 2017). While video gaming has been shown to improve concentration, multitasking, and working memory, it may also have negative consequences when used excessively. Excessive video gamers are at danger of having worse scholastic and job success, difficulties with peers, and lower social skills if they spend the most of their day gaming (Mihara and Higuchi, 2017). On the one hand, video game use is common, and it can have both antecedents and repercussions. However, little is known regarding the links between various video gaming behaviors and psychological functioning. Using a large sample size, this study seeks to shed light on these crucial relationships.
A video game is described as “a game that we play using an audiovisual equipment and that can be story-based” (Esposito, 2005). The quantity of scientific study committed to video game playing has risen in recent years (e.g., Ferguson, 2015; Calvert et al., 2017; Hamari and Keronen, 2017). The majority of scientific investigations in this field have concentrated on the extent of video game play and its many correlations. While some researchers have stressed the advantages of gaming and even proposed a therapeutic application of video games (Primack et al., 2012; Granic et al., 2014; Colder Carras et al., 2018), others have been fascinated by its possible risks (Anderson et al., 2010; Müller and Wölfling, 2017).
Parents and experts may be concerned that their children who play excessively may become “addicted.” However, problematic and potentially addictive video game use extends beyond the level of playing (in hours per week; Skoric et al., 2009).It also addresses topics such as addiction, loss of control, and the harmful repercussions of excessive gaming. While it is still debatable whether excessive video game activity should be classified as a behavioral addiction, its position as a mental disease has been defined since the DSM-5 was published in 2013. The American Psychiatric Association (2013) classified Internet Gaming Disorder in the DSM-5 using diagnostic criteria similar to Gambling Disorder. Many researchers (e.g., Petry et al., 2014) have generally backed this choice, although it has also sparked debate. Researchers have questioned the use of diagnostic criteria as well as the ambiguous description of the Internet Gaming Disorder construct, which precludes offline games from being associated with addiction usage (e.g., Griffiths et al., 2016; Bean et al., 2017).
Use of potentially harmful video games
The Scale for the Assessment of Internet and Computer Game Addiction (Wölfling et al., 2016) was used to assess participants’ gaming activity in terms of possible problematic use. Based on the DSM criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder (tolerance, desire, loss of control, emotion regulation, withdrawal, and failed attempts to cut back), this standardized self-report measure consists of 15 items on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always) (very often).Weighted scoring is used to generate the final score (Min = 0, Max = 27 points) (items having an item-total correlation > 0.55 in the norm sample are weighted twice; Wölfling et al., 2011). The AICA-S score can be used to distinguish between normal (0–6.5 point) and problematic (0–13 point) video game use (7–13 point abuse; 13.5–27 point addiction).In our sample, N = 2,265 (83%) were classified as normal gamers, whereas N = 469 (17%) were classified as problematic gamers. For all subsequent analyses, we utilized the AICA-S as a continuous variable (M = 3.98, SD = 3.22, Range: 0–24). The instrument has been validated in the general population and clinical samples for various age groups (Müller et al., 2014a, 2019, although note limited sample size; Müller et al., 2014b). Cronbach’s alpha was equal to 0.70. The AICA-S score was linked with male sex (r = 0.17), as predicted, and age (r = –0.15). Participants played video games for an average of M = 4.09 hours each workday (SD = 4.44, Range: 0–24) and M = 4.21 hours per day on weekends (SD = 2.99, Range: 0–24).
Psychopathology in general
The SCL-K-9 (Klaghofer and Brähler, 2001), a condensed version of the SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 1975), was used to measure participants’ subjective impairment in terms of psychological symptoms (somatization, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism). The SCL-K-9 score is significantly linked with the SCL-90-R original score (r = 0.93). The 9 items were graded on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (do not agree at all) to 5 (totally agree) (agree completely). Cronbach’s alpha was acceptable ( = 0.77).
Affect
We used the German version (Krohne et al., 1996) of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to assess overall affect as a trait and affect while video gaming as a state (PANAS; Watson et al., 1988). Participants assessed the strength of 20 descriptors on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (totally). Cronbach’s alpha for overall positive affect was = 0.78, for general negative affect was = 0.83, for positive affect while playing was = 0.85, and for negative affect while playing was = 0.83.
Friendship and social support
The perceived available social support subscale from the Berlin Social Support Scales was administered (BSSS; Schwarzer and Schulz, 2003). The 8 items were graded on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very) (completely). Cronbach’s alpha was quite high ( = 0.94). Participants reported the number of offline friends and acquaintances they had (r = 0.44, p 0.001), as well as the number of online friends and acquaintances they had (r = 0.33, p 0.001). We logarithmized the data before aggregate due to left-skewed distributions.
Analyses
In the first stage, we calculated zero-order correlations between video game variables and psychological functioning measures. In a further stage, we computed partial correlations while controlling for gender and age, because previous research has consistently demonstrated that gender and age are linked with both video gaming (Homer et al., 2012; Mihara and Higuchi, 2017) and psychological functioning (Kessler et al., 2007; Nolen-Hoeksema, 2012). Finally, we looked at how each measure of psychological functioning contributed to the prediction of possibly hazardous video gaming.As a result, we ran regressions using possibly problematic video gaming as the dependent variable and sex, age, and psychological functioning indicators as predictors (entered simultaneously into the regression equation). Using this approach, we were able to identify the influence that each variable had in addition to the others. For example, when all other factors (e.g., shyness, loneliness, and others) were held constant, we could determine if general psychopathology was predictive of potentially hazardous video game usage.
We also included studies of sex and age variations in the relationship between video gaming and psychological functioning. Because we used a self-selected sample with unequal representation of the sexes and age groups, our findings are preliminary, but they may spark further study.
