TY - JOUR
T1 - Gaming to relieve tension or anxiety and associations with health functioning, substance use and physical violence in high school students
T2 - Gaming to Relieve Anxiety
AU - Garakani, Amir
AU - Zhai, Zu Wei
AU - Hoff, Rani A.
AU - Krishnan-Sarin, Suchitra
AU - Potenza, Marc N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/8
Y1 - 2021/8
N2 - Gaming is popular among youth and gaming disorders have been introduced recently into psychiatric nomenclature systems. Motivations underlying gaming may include involvement to reduce negative emotional states and thus may link to psychiatric and overall health. Thus, the extent to which adolescents engage in gaming to relieve anxiety warrants additional investigation. Data from 2005 Connecticut high-school students were used to examine how adolescents who reported gaming to relieve tension or anxiety differed from those who reported gaming but not to relieve tension or anxiety on measures of demographics, academic performance, general health, extracurricular activities, dysphoria/depression symptoms, substance use, and aggressive or violent behaviors. Chi-square analyses and binomial and multinomial logistic regression models were conducted. Gaming to relieve anxiety was more prevalent in boys and Hispanic and Asian adolescents and associated with less extracurricular involvement, poorer academic performance, increased cigarette and other drug use, problematic internet use, and depression. Participants with gaming to relieve tension or anxiety were also more likely to report weapon-carrying, missing school because they felt unsafe, having been threatened with a weapon, having engaged in physical fights, and having experienced injuries from fights. As gaming to relieve anxiety was related to mental-health- and functioning-related measures, additional research is needed to examine the precise natures of these relationships and to translate the information into improved intervention strategies.
AB - Gaming is popular among youth and gaming disorders have been introduced recently into psychiatric nomenclature systems. Motivations underlying gaming may include involvement to reduce negative emotional states and thus may link to psychiatric and overall health. Thus, the extent to which adolescents engage in gaming to relieve anxiety warrants additional investigation. Data from 2005 Connecticut high-school students were used to examine how adolescents who reported gaming to relieve tension or anxiety differed from those who reported gaming but not to relieve tension or anxiety on measures of demographics, academic performance, general health, extracurricular activities, dysphoria/depression symptoms, substance use, and aggressive or violent behaviors. Chi-square analyses and binomial and multinomial logistic regression models were conducted. Gaming to relieve anxiety was more prevalent in boys and Hispanic and Asian adolescents and associated with less extracurricular involvement, poorer academic performance, increased cigarette and other drug use, problematic internet use, and depression. Participants with gaming to relieve tension or anxiety were also more likely to report weapon-carrying, missing school because they felt unsafe, having been threatened with a weapon, having engaged in physical fights, and having experienced injuries from fights. As gaming to relieve anxiety was related to mental-health- and functioning-related measures, additional research is needed to examine the precise natures of these relationships and to translate the information into improved intervention strategies.
KW - Addictive behavior
KW - Adolescence
KW - Anxiety
KW - Impulse control
KW - Motivation
KW - Video games
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85108073785&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.05.055
DO - 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.05.055
M3 - Article
C2 - 34147933
AN - SCOPUS:85108073785
SN - 0022-3956
VL - 140
SP - 461
EP - 467
JO - Journal of Psychiatric Research
JF - Journal of Psychiatric Research
ER -