Adults love video games as a kind of entertainment. The time people spend playing video games has gradually increased from 5.1 hours per week in 2011 to 6.5 hours per week in 2017. Although video games are known to have some advantages, such as improving attention, multitasking and working memory, it can also have drawbacks when used excessively.
Excessive video gamers risk lower academic and professional achievement, problems with their peers, and social skills due to spending a significant portion of their day gaming. On the one hand, the use of video games is common and can have both positive and negative repercussions. The relationship between various video game behaviors and psychological functioning, on the other hand, is poorly understood. Using a large sample, this study seeks to shed light on these crucial relationships.
A video game is described as “a game that we play using audiovisual equipment and which can be based on a story”. The amount of scientific studies devoted to video games has increased in recent years. The majority of scientific research in this area has focused on the extent of video gameplay and its many correlations. While some studies have highlighted the benefits of gaming and even proposed that video games can be used for therapeutic purposes, others have questioned this. Its possible risks have piqued the interest of others.
Parents and experts may fear that their children will become “addicted” to their excessive games. In contrast, problematic and potentially addictive video game use goes beyond gaming. It also covers topics such as addiction, loss of control, and the harmful effects of excessive gambling. Many researchers have approved of this choice in general, although it has also sparked debate. Researchers have questioned the diagnostic criteria used and the ambiguous concept of the Internet Gambling disorder, which excludes offline games from being linked to addictive behavior.
Several research, literature reviews, and meta-analyzes have examined correlates of problematic video games, which are typically measured on a scale with addiction at the top. Video game addiction has been linked to psychological characteristics, including low self-esteem, low self-efficacy, anxiety and aggression, as well as clinical signs of depression. Lack of real-life friends, stress and maladjustment, lower psychological well-being and loneliness, psychosomatic issues, and decreased academic achievement are all potential effects of using video games. .
The magnitude of the effect varied greatly from research to research. In terms of video game behavior, there appear to be differences by gender and age: potentially problematic video games are found to be more common among men than among girls and among young gamers. It is important to examine why people play video games in addition to examining problematic video game use and its relationship to psychological functioning. Gamers play video games for a variety of reasons, including to escape daily stress or to take advantage of the social bonds they have forged in the virtual world. Games such as crazy time help them relax and enjoy the gaming process in the most convenient way after the long and tedious days. Various motivations for playing video games, such as copy-and-escape, sociability, and personal growth, have been linked to potentially dangerous video games. Men were more likely than girls to play video games for a variety of reasons, including adaptation, social engagement, and competitiveness.
When it comes to age disparities, the results are mixed, although social ties tend to inspire young players more than anything else. However, it is still unclear to what extent the various motivations of people to play video games relate to their psychological functioning. In addition to examining the links between the potentially harmful use of video games and psychological functioning, as well as the motivations for playing video games and psychological functioning, it is also important to examine the genres of games that people like. Cognitive improvements, along with time spent playing and psychopathology, are all factors that influence game genre choices.
Action and strategy games were preferred by men, while games of skill were preferred by women. Younger players seemed to favor action games, while senior players preferred games of skill. However, it is not clear to what extent preferences for specific video game genres relate to psychological functioning in various ways. Typically, research has focused on either violent video games or a single game within a single game genre, ignoring the wide range of possible game behaviors seen across many game genres. Our aim in this study was to examine the intricacies of the relationship between video games and psychological functioning. We examined psychological functioning using a variety of factors, including psychological symptoms, coping methods, and social support.
Likewise, we looked at video games in depth, covering topics such as (a) problematic video game use, (b) motivations to play, and (c) preferred game genres. This method has prevented us from making potentially incorrect assumptions about video games in general, allowing us to examine a wide range of gaming behaviors and the relationships between them and various variables.
Excessive video gaming should appeal to people with psychological functioning since games allow them to escape their daily worries and immerse themselves in another world. Additionally, video games allow people to socialize with others despite the more or less obvious psychological issues they may have. However, because this reduces the time and opportunity players have to practice actual behavior, potentially dangerous use of video games can lead to psychological problems. As a result, we expected to detect a negative relationship between problematic video games and psychological functioning factors, so that greater use of potentially problematic video games would be linked to dysfunctional coping mechanisms, negative affectivity. and poor academic performance.
We also expected to find that people’s favorite game genres were linked to their psychological functioning in various ways. Finally, we wanted to see how each measure of psychological functioning contributes differently to the prediction of problematic video game use.
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