In a new study, researchers found little evidence to suggest an unhealthy passion for gaming amongst adolescents, often referred to as “gaming addiction,” requires clinical intervention by medical professionals.
The research was conducted by a team from Oxford University and Cardiff University.
The team analyzed data from over 1,000 adolescents and their caregivers to see if psychological need satisfactions and frustrations in adolescents are linked to obsessive gaming.
The finding suggests those engaged in dysfunctional gaming are likely to have underlying frustrations and wider psychosocial functioning issues outside of games.
These issues are likely to lead them to seek contentment by gaming, rather than being negatively impacted by gaming itself.
The team says their findings provided no evidence suggesting an unhealthy relationship with gaming accounts for substantial emotional, peer and behavioral problems.
Instead, variations in gaming experience are much more likely to be linked to whether adolescents’ basic psychological needs for competence, autonomy, and social belonging are being met and if they are already experiencing wider functioning issues.
In light of these findings, the scientists do not believe sufficient evidence exists to warrant thinking about gaming as a clinical disorder in its own right.
The study tested hypotheses considering the extent to which adolescents exhibiting obsessive gaming reliably links to whether their basic psychological needs were being met.
They found most adolescents played at least one internet-based game daily.
Less than half of daily online gamers reported symptoms of obsessive gaming. Daily players were highly engaged, devoting an average of three hours a day to games.
There was little evidence that obsessive gaming strongly impacted adolescent outcomes.
The team urges healthcare professionals to look more closely at the underlying factors such as psychological satisfactions and everyday frustrations to understand why a minority of players feel like they must engage in gaming in an obsessive way.
The authors of the study are Professor Andrew Przybylski and Dr. Netta Weinstein.
The study is published in Clinical Psychological Science.
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