Not to get political, but video games act as a connector for every type of person who loves them. Allowing for friendships to be forged in extraordinary situations. A lot of kids deal with social anxiety and video games give them something to talk about when they meet a new friend.
I loved spending time with my friends playing video games after a hard day. I thought it was a great way to socialize and be together. Playing online gives kids the opportunity to connect with people all over the world. Having this opportunity to communicate over video games can translate to their ability to communicate offline as well.
In high school, my brother and I both played American football and quickly learned the importance of communication. These are the same principles being applied in League of Legends. Your child and their teammates are learning how best to communicate and respect each other. Many professional gamers have even come out and admitted that their teammates are like family.
The people and organizations responsible for these gaming teams understand the importance of friendship and will schedule team building activities outside of video games. They know these gamers need to feel connected to each other so that they perform better in tournaments. The desire to connect using video games has become so widespread that gamers are giving out their gaming tag instead of their own phone numbers. The most common concern is that video games will have the opposite social effect and force kids to feel more isolated and separated when they play.
This is something that esports organizers, investors, and owners are fully aware of and are trying to address so their sport will continue to thrive. Team managers and owners know they need parents on their sides to continue to groom new gamers to compete. The biggest concern when it comes to video games is there addictive nature. This addictive nature has led to family struggles, unhealthy habits, and loss of friendships.
In a college of 20, students, about 8, will be male gamers; 1 in 8 would mean that over 1, students are at risk. In an online poll, gamers were asked what they believed to be the main benefit of gaming.
This is a large contrast to the common view that playing video games leads to violence and other antisocial behavior. Another benefit that was talked about was forming strong friendships. As a year-old gamer, I have made more than a few friendships through gaming. Playing a game provides a good icebreaker, common ground, and a way to spend time together. The voice of gamers is going to play a big role in the future as gaming culture continues to develop and grow.
Gaming is not a perfect world. There are flaws such as gaming addiction that need to be addressed. But for the most part, it seems that gaming has a positive impact and should be treated as such.
To learn more about Qutee and participate in the discussion visit their website. This is a BETA experience. The general A-criterion for major depression is defined as two weeks of dysphoric mood or loss of interest or pleasure in most activities. We used a depression index as a summation of the DSRS-reported symptoms, with each symptom category counting only once 0—9 points.
A dichotomous variable was also created, in which subjects fulfilling the DSM-IV A-criterion were classified as depressed. The A-criterion has a reported sensitivity of The use of this measurement has been previously reported 39 , A summation index was created with a range of 0—12 points.
Use of this measurement has previously been reported 39 , A summation index was created with a range of 0—20 points. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to investigate online gaming time on weekdays and weekends, motives for gaming, and their relations with depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms.
A majority Depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms were significantly more common among girls than among boys. Among the boys, Girls spent less time gaming than boys. Compared to girls, boys more often reported gaming because of demands, to gain status, and to escape other problems in their ordinary lives Table I.
Among the total sample, The strongest correlation between gaming motives and health variables was found between Escape motives and depressive symptoms. The control variables correlated with most dependent variables Table II. In univariate logistic regression models, single player frequency was not significantly associated with any of the ill health variables. However, multiplayer online gaming was associated with depressive symptoms OR 1.
Furthermore, in a multivariate binary logistic regression, neither single player frequency i. However, increased gaming time i.
However, there were no such associations for online gaming time on weekends. In addition, playing for high Escape motives was associated with increased probability of musculoskeletal and psychosomatic symptoms. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses of gaming time and motives to play in relation to depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms. We further investigated the combined effects of motives for gaming and time spent gaming on weekdays Table IV and weekends Table V.
Depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms generally increased with extended gaming time, but these associations depended on the motives for gaming. Individuals who played for more than five hours with low—medium Escape motives had no increased probability for depressive symptoms compared with non-gamers, whereas individuals who played for the same duration with high Escape motives increased their probability by more than four times Table IV. Similar patterns were found for musculoskeletal symptoms and psychosomatic symptoms.
Binary logistic regression analyses for the motives for playing combined with gaming time on weekdays in relation to depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms. The three different motives for playing models are presented in three separate analyses. Binary logistic regression analyses for the motives for playing combined with gaming time on weekends in relation to depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms.
Among the weekend gamers, the highest probabilities for depressive symptoms were within the high Escape group. Compared to non-gamers, the increased symptom probabilities for these players were double to quadruple for depressive symptoms, double for musculoskeletal symptoms, and double to triple for psychosomatic symptoms. However, among high Escape weekend gamers, the association with time spent gaming was less apparent Table V.
The highest probability for depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms was found among weekday gamers, especially those who played for high Escape motives and spent an excessive amount of time gaming i. Furthermore, among individuals driven by positive motives, time spent gaming was of high importance in relation to ill health, whereas among the negative motives the time spent gaming was less important. We separated the monthly or weekly amount of gaming frequency and hours of gaming a day time spent gaming since it seemed plausible that these measures would differ in relation to the health variables.
Time spent gaming was associated with depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms. However, in multivariate analyses no associations were found for gaming frequency, supporting our expectations that, depending on how gaming time is measured, different effects and negative consequences might be revealed. The highest probabilities for depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms were found among weekday gamers and were less apparent among weekend gamers, indicating that weekday and weekend gaming should be separated in future research.
Not distinguishing between these factors might lead to false conclusions, which may partly explain the contradictory results from previous research. Moreover, in previous contradictory findings of gaming and health variables, combined effects of motives for gaming and gaming time have rarely been investigated.
Previous studies have argued that gaming duration of more than five hours a day seems to increase the probability of negative consequences 16 ; this is supported by our findings. A possible explanation for the relation between time spent gaming and musculoskeletal symptoms could be consecutive periods of gaming, leading to sustained muscle tension and no time for recovery.
Even if excessive gaming time elevates the number of gaming-related problems, the relations vary depending on the gaming motives. Regardless of the form or type of activity, however, it seems plausible that if a lot of time is spent on one activity i.
In a previous study, we found that excessive gaming might have a negative influence on schoolwork, sleep, relations with friends and family, and other leisure activities Following these findings, we suggest that gaming time should not be used as a single measure for problems due to gaming behaviour, but rather in combination with the motives for gaming. Social interaction and communication within the gaming experience play an important role for many gamers However, other gamers play online games because it provides anonymity; within the virtual life, the gamer can chose another identity to help cope with everyday life 15 , 42 , Moreover, loneliness is associated with problematic Internet use If the gamer has pre-existing problems such as depression, gaming may enhance these symptoms because the depressed individual may become isolated due to gaming and subsequently spend even more time alone.
Individuals under psychosocial distress may develop a preference for online social interactions, which may result in further negative outcomes that are associated with problematic Internet use Results from the present study indicate that depressive symptoms are more common among gamers than they are among non-gamers. Although the direction of this relationship is not clear, the finding may be of importance for identifying depressed individuals within adolescent groups.
Similar results were found for psychosomatic symptoms, which were more common among those who played to escape problems in their ordinary lives. Of note, depression symptoms and psychosomatic symptoms are partially overlapping constructs, with feeling of nervousness common to both. These results should be understood in the context of several limitations. First, self-reporting always involves a risk that the participant misunderstood the questions or provided false answers.
Second, since the design was cross-sectional, our ability to predict causality was limited. It is unclear whether gaming leads to problems or if individuals with pre-existing problems engage more easily in gaming as an escape strategy 19 , Third, online gaming is not a leisure activity exclusive to adolescents; many adults also play online games.
However, the sample used for this study cannot be considered representative of a non-adolescent population. Fourth, gaming activities are more common among boys, whereas girls more often suffer from ill health.
The use of BMI cut-off scores for adolescents has been previously discussed 32—34 and can differ based on age and sex. However, BMI was only used as a covariate, and consequently cut-off scores should only have had a minimal impact on our results If BMI had been our independent variable, developmentally modified cut-off scores would have been important.
These confounding factors were not controlled for in the present study, so the results must be interpreted with care. Fifth, the response options for the gaming time questions were overlapping in content. An adolescent who plays online games for exactly two hours each day might not have been able to choose between the response options.
However, although this is a major limitation, we expect that most adolescents were able to respond correctly to whether they usually game for up to two hours or for more than two hours. There are also several study strengths. To our knowledge, the combined effects of time spent gaming and motives for gaming have not been previously studied in relation to depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms.
Furthermore, as previously reported 26 we found similar results when investigating negative social consequences due to gaming, further strengthening the direction of our findings. In previously reported results 26 we further highlighted the value of using an exploratory design. That study used data from the same study population to investigate negative social consequences due to gaming, as compared with the present study investigating relations between gaming and ill health. In previous research, gamers have often been investigated as a stereotypical group 22 , which might result in misleading conclusions because individuals choose to play for many different reasons and because in-game experiences and effects vary substantially While separating gamers based on time spent gaming and different playing motives, results revealed that some gamers have a higher probability of ill health than others do.
Moreover, earlier studies have been criticized for their small study samples and failure to account for the potentially confounding factors 26 , The high response rate in the present study, among a large population-based sample considered fairly representative of Sweden as a whole, means that we can generalize these findings to other adolescent populations from countries with similar cultures and living conditions.
These data suggest that excessive gaming time and escape motives are associated with increased probability of ill health among adolescents.
IGD may be influenced by other mental health issues 46 and could be a maladaptive strategy to cope with psychiatric disorders such as depression or ADHD 11 , The present study also adds to the body of knowledge regarding the combined effects of time spent gaming and gaming motives in relation to depressive, musculoskeletal, and psychosomatic symptoms. Moreover, gaming motives may identify gamers in need of support to reduce unhealthy gaming behaviour as well as identify individuals at risk for ill health.
These results may be of interest to parents, teachers, psychologists, social workers, and others who are involved in adolescent health and development.
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