Video game addiction in kids, teens soars during lockdown

Problematic video gaming behaviours spiked in children and adolescents, likely in association with loneliness and poor mental health, amid lockdowns to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to a recent Hong Kong study. Such finding may have potential public health and clinical implications.

“Policy makers and designers of prevention programmes must consider age and gender as significant factors that will impact the outcomes of such programmes,” the researchers said. “Parents and teachers with young children can organize more nondigital leisure activities to reduce the potential overuse of digital gadgets used for gaming.”

A total of 2,863 participants (mean age 12.6±1.32 years, 52.5 percent girls) were cross-sectionally evaluated using the 7-item Game Addiction Scale (GAS), adapted to Chinese and for children. Relevant scales were also used to measure parental support and supervision, depression, and anxiety. Gaming time and mode, as well as loneliness, were assessed through questionnaires.

Eighty-three percent (n=2,377) of the participants said that they played video games every day during lockdown, most of whom did so for 2 (15.8 percent), 3 (18.0 percent), or 4 (13.1 percent) hours. While 10.7 percent noted that they only played for 30 minutes a day, 4.6 percent of respondents admitted that they went past 5 hours. [JMIR Serious Games 2021;9:e26808]

Responses to the GAS showed 55.2 percent of the participants played longer than they intended to. In terms of gaming addiction symptoms, tolerance seemed to be the most common, manifesting in 55.2 percent of respondents. This was followed by preoccupation (45.8 percent), escape (35.3 percent), and unsuccessful attempts to stop or reduce playing (34.2 percent).

Majority (87.9 percent) had at least symptom of gaming addiction, while 20.9 percent had 4–6 symptoms, making their gaming behaviours excessive. Notably, 153 participants (5.3 percent) displayed all seven symptoms in the GAS and were deemed to have pathological gaming addiction. Symptoms were more likely to present in boys than in girls.

In identifying potential explanatory factors, the researchers looked at loneliness. Of the 2,863 participants, 6.1 percent (n=176) said that they felt lonely almost every day over the past 2 weeks, 7.2 percent (n=206) felt the same for nearly half of the days, and 18.8 percent (n=538) for several days.

Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that such feelings of loneliness significantly aggravated the likelihood of excessive gaming by 23 percent (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.23, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.19–1.26) and of pathological gaming by 45 percent (aOR, 1.45, 95 percent CI, 1.38–1.53).

Adjusting for depression and anxiety, however, completely attenuated the effect of loneliness on problematic gaming behaviour, indicating a role of mental health.

Familial factors also affected video gaming. Children in single-parent families or with unemployed fathers, for example, were at greater risk of problem behaviours; on the other hand, high socioeconomic status, access to better internet, and parental support were all protective against excessive and pathological gaming.

“[G]aming can be helpful to the well-being of young people, but can also be harmful, especially to those with lower self-control tendencies,” the researchers said. “Mature caregivers can help promote positive gaming by providing parental supervision.”

“In addition, more game developers can take steps to design more functional games with social scientists and young people that promote mental well-being and protect players’ health by including planned designs to minimize addictive gaming behaviours,” they noted.