So, I was going on one of my frequent researches and I decided to search "video games as a coping mechanism." I found this Australian article to be rather interesting because "According to The Global Video Game Play, Health and Well-being Study,
hardcore gamers reported 25 per cent more depression and 15 per cent
more anxiety than regular gamers." Therefore, there is some link to hard core gamers and just regular gamers. Excessive gamers sees video games as a way to escape from reality and just breathe. The article doesn't point at finger at what specific group, race or economic status play's these games, however, this group of individuals are categorized as the "Excessive Gamers." The researchers conducted an survey and excessive gamers averages "33 hours of gameplay a week." These researchers are just one of many who are looking to find the link between excessive game play and depression. If you would like to read more the link is below?
http://www.topnews.in/health/gaming-may-be-coping-mechanism-depression-214519
It's important to distinguish between a correlational relationship (e.g. that of someone depressed being more likely to be a 'hardcore' gamer) and a causal link between 'harcore gaming' and depression as you implied.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, there isn't a link to the study so seeing how they operationalized 'excessive' or 'hardcore' gaming could greatly impact generalizability and significance.
Psych major rant over.
Followup: I contacted the study's author and got the prior lit he's using. I'll be in contact with him in the future. Great find!
DeleteI often wonder what "hard core gamer" is really defined as. Sure, I can see excessive Call of Duty playing resulting in depression (especially with the nature of that content), but does someone that plays just as much Angry Birds also feel the same amount of depression?
ReplyDeleteI've been working on my paper, and I'm ending it with the notion of mobile gaming being on under-study category of "obsessive" gaming.
I wonder if these "Excessive gamers" in this article would include this group.