Computer game addiction: a new diagnosis from the World Health Organization (WHO)
In recent years, computer games have become one of the most common leisure activities among both children and adults. For the vast majority of people, computer games bring positive benefits, such as increased well-being or the opportunity to form social relationships with people all over the world. However, for a small part of the population, computer games can lead to significant impairment in important areas of life.
Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has included video game addiction as a diagnosis in the upcoming edition of the international classification system ICD-11, expected to be released in 2022. Several risk factors have been identified for video game addiction, including neurobiological, personality and motivational factors. In addition, specific motives have been proposed as key factors for future treatment and intervention programs.
As a result of the increasing research interest in understanding the causes of video game addiction and the underlying motivational factors, many definitions and variations of assessment instruments have become available. However, as a result of this growing availability of assessment instruments, inconsistent measurements are occurring in the research field. Therefore, we will initially conduct a systematic literature review and meta-analysis to gain an overall understanding of the relationship between video game addiction and underlying motivational factors. Subsequently, we will conduct validation studies of instruments intended to measure video game addiction, which will enable us to examine the relationship between psychological factors and video game addiction in a Swedish context.
Funding: PhD project, 2020 – 2024
Participants: Christian Bäcklund (Psychology, LTU), Pia Elbe (Psychology, LTU), Daniel Sörman (Engineering Psychology, LTU), Mariana Vega Mendoza (Psychology, LTU), Jessica K. Ljungberg (Psychology, LTU), Hanna Malmberg Gavelin (Department of Psychology, Umeå University)
Contact at Luleå University of Technology: Christian Bäcklund
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