A study, published just last week, sheds new light on the relationship between video game addiction and mental health diagnoses.
Researchers followed nearly 4300 pre-teens and teens for 4 years and asked: Are preexisting mental and emotional health conditions associated with subsequent gaming disorder among adolescents, or is compulsive gaming associated with the later development of these conditions?
The study took into account past factors in the lives of the subjects such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and previous adverse or traumatic events such as death in the family or bullying. Kylie Falcione, one of the neuroscientists at UC Santa Barbara’s Neuroscience Lab, explains, “The results we found were clear and consistent. The kids who were already having depressive symptoms and social issues were more likely to get stuck in a cycle of problematic gaming. For these kids, gaming had become an unhealthy coping mechanism.”
“In contrast,” the study results state, “gaming disorder was not associated with later increases in psychopathology.” Meaning that gaming was not found to cause or correlate to later diagnoses of depression, anxiety, or other mental health challenges.
What does this mean for parents concerned about their kids’ gaming habits? Falcione advises, “Many parents think that simply taking away video games will solve the problem. But without addressing what’s really going on, parents will not only be contending with their child’s withdrawal symptoms, their child may relapse into more addictive gaming behaviors or find another outlet.”
So for parents concerned about their adolescent’s problematic gaming might consider talking to a pediatrician or therapist and investigate whether there are underlying causes including mental and emotional health.