he aim of this study was to identify problematic gaming behavior among Finnish adolescents and young adults, and evaluate its connection to a variety of psychological, social, and physical health symptoms.
This cross-sectional study was conducted with a random sample of 293 respondents aged from 13 to 24 years. Participants completed an online survey. Problematic gaming behavior was measured with the Game Addiction Scale (GAS). Self-reports covered health measures such as psychological health (psychopathological symptoms, satisfaction with life), social health (preferences for social interaction), and physical health (general health, Body Mass Index [BMI], body discomfort, physical activity).
Problematic gaming behavior was found to relate to psychological and health problems, namely fatigue, sleep interference, depression and anxiety symptoms. Multiple linear regression indicated that the amount of weekly gaming, depression and a preference for online social interaction predicted increased problematic gaming symptoms.
This research emphasized that problematic gaming behavior had a strong negative correlation to a variety of subjective health outcomes.
Download the PDF article on AKJournals.
A brief 4-week intervention using screen time trackers showed that reducing social media use (SMU, experimental group) yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy SMU, whereas unrestricted access to social media (control group) did not.
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Video games have become so good, and provide such a sensory smorgasbord of action and colour, that children are becoming dangerously addicted. They’re playing for days on end, to the exclusion of everything else in their lives, including school, friends and family.
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Hundreds of millions of dollars of grants go to community groups every year from gambling, including pokies, Lotto and casinos – but legal online casinos wouldn’t have to, under new government plans. Steve Kilgallon reports.
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