A new study finds that young and single men are at risk of being addicted to video games. The addiction indicates an escape from ADHD and psychiatric disorder.
"Video game addiction is more prevalent among younger men, and among those not being in a current relationship, than others," says study author Cecilie Schou Andreassen, doctor of psychology and clinical psychologist specialist at Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen (UiB). Schou Andreassen has carried out a study with more than 20 000 participants who answered questions related to videogame addiction. The study is published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, of the American Psychological Association. The study showed that video game addiction appears to be associated with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression. "However, most people have a relaxed relationship to video games and fairly good control," Doctor Cecilie Schou Andreassen highlights. Seven Warning Signs The study uses seven criteria to identify video game addiction (developed by Lemmens et al., 2009), where gaming experiences last six months are scored on a scale from Never to Very often: You think about playing a game all day long You spend increasing amounts of time on games You play games to forget about real life Others have unsuccessfully tried to reduce your game use You feel bad when you are unable to play You have fights with others (e.g., family, friends) over your time spent on games You neglect other important activities (e.g., school, work, sports) to play games Scoring high on at least four of the seven items may suggest that you are addicted to video gaming associated with impaired health, work, school and/or social relations.- Cecilie Schou Andreassen, Joël Billieux, Mark D. Griffiths, Daria J. Kuss, Zsolt Demetrovics, Elvis Mazzoni, Ståle Pallesen. The relationship between addictive use of social media and video games and symptoms of psychiatric disorders: A large-scale cross-sectional study.. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 2016; 30 (2): 252 DOI: 10.1037/adb0000160
- University of Bergen. (2016, April 25). Videogame addiction linked to ADHD. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 28, 2016 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160425095529.htm
