Gaming Intensity and Mental Health in Early Adolescence: The Role of Gaming Motivations

Playing online video games is a popular and highly common leisure time activity among adolescents, especially boys, raising concerns about its impact on mental health. While some research has found that higher gaming intensity is negatively associated with adolescent mental health, such negative outcomes especially seem to occur for a small subgroup of gamers exhibiting more problematic gaming behavior (e.g., Internet Gaming Disorder [IGD] symptoms). However, few studies have explicitly differentiated normal variation in gaming intensity from problematic gaming behavior. In this preregistered study, we therefore examined the relation between gaming intensity and mental health problems (i.e., life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, generalized anxiety disorder symptoms, and loneliness) in early adolescence, controlling for IGD symptoms. Additionally, we examined the role of six gaming motives (i.e., competition, coping, fantasy, social, recreation, escape motives) in this association. Participants were 1,111 Dutch adolescents (51.5% girls, Mage = 12.8, SDage = 0.8) from the first wave of the Digital Youth and Identity (DiYo-I) project, who completed self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that gaming intensity was not significantly related to mental health problems in both boys and girls, controlling for IGD symptoms. Interestingly, gaming intensity was significantly related to mental health problems in both boys and girls without controlling for IGD symptoms. Generally, no significant moderation was observed across all six gaming motives. These results suggest that gaming intensity is not an independent risk factor for mental health in early adolescence in both boys and girls, and that this association is not moderated by gaming motives.