PMID- 25855558
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20151112
LR  - 20181202
IS  - 1438-8871 (Electronic)
IS  - 1439-4456 (Print)
IS  - 1438-8871 (Linking)
VI  - 17
IP  - 4
DP  - 2015 Apr 7
TI  - The mediating effect of gaming motivation between psychiatric symptoms and 
      problematic online gaming: an online survey.
PG  - e88
LID - 10.2196/jmir.3515 [doi]
LID - e88
AB  - BACKGROUND: The rapid expansion of online video gaming as a leisure time activity 
      has led to the appearance of problematic online gaming (POG). According to the 
      literature, POG is associated with different psychiatric symptoms (eg, 
      depression, anxiety) and with specific gaming motives (ie, escape, achievement). 
      Based on studies of alcohol use that suggest a mediator role of drinking motives 
      between distal influences (eg, trauma symptoms) and drinking problems, this study 
      examined the assumption that there is an indirect link between psychiatric 
      distress and POG via the mediation of gaming motives. Furthermore, it was also 
      assumed that there was a moderator effect of gender and game type preference 
      based on the important role gender plays in POG and the structural differences 
      between different game types. OBJECTIVE: This study had two aims. The first aim 
      was to test the mediating role of online gaming motives between psychiatric 
      symptoms and problematic use of online games. The second aim was to test the 
      moderator effect of gender and game type preference in this mediation model. 
      METHODS: An online survey was conducted on a sample of online gamers (N=3186; 
      age: mean 21.1, SD 5.9 years; male: 2859/3186, 89.74%). The Brief Symptom 
      Inventory (BSI), the Motives for Online Gaming Questionnaire (MOGQ), and the 
      Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire (POGQ) were administered to assess 
      general psychiatric distress, online gaming motives, and problematic online game 
      use, respectively. Structural regression analyses within structural equation 
      modeling were used to test the proposed mediation models and multigroup analyses 
      were used to test gender and game type differences to determine possible 
      moderating effects. RESULTS: The mediation models fitted the data adequately. The 
      Global Severity Index (GSI) of the BSI indicated that the level of psychiatric 
      distress had a significant positive direct effect (standardized effect=.35, 
      P<.001) and a significant indirect (mediating) effect on POG (standardized 
      effect=.194, P<.001) via 2 gaming motives: escape (standardized effect=.139, 
      P<.001) and competition (standardized effect=.046, P<.001). The comparison of the 
      2 main gamer types showed no significant differences in the model. However, when 
      comparing male and female players it was found that women had (1) slightly higher 
      escape scores (on a 5-point Likert scale: mean 2.28, SD 1.14) than men (mean 
      1.87, SD 0.97) and (2) a stronger association between the escape motive and 
      problematic online gaming (standardized effect size=.64, P<.001) than men 
      (standardized effect size=.20, P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that 
      psychiatric distress is both directly and indirectly (via escape and competition 
      motives) negatively associated with POG. Therefore, the exploration of 
      psychiatric symptoms and gaming motives of POG can be helpful in the preparation 
      of prevention and treatment programs.
FAU - Kiraly, Orsolya
AU  - Kiraly O
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-9981-4212
AD  - Institute of Psychology, Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.
FAU - Urban, Robert
AU  - Urban R
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-2058-5937
FAU - Griffiths, Mark D
AU  - Griffiths MD
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524
FAU - Agoston, Csilla
AU  - Agoston C
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-5229-9345
FAU - Nagygyorgy, Katalin
AU  - Nagygyorgy K
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-6100-7992
FAU - Kokonyei, Gyongyi
AU  - Kokonyei G
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-6750-2644
FAU - Demetrovics, Zsolt
AU  - Demetrovics Z
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-5604-7551
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20150407
PL  - Canada
TA  - J Med Internet Res
JT  - Journal of medical Internet research
JID - 100959882
SB  - IM
MH  - Adolescent
MH  - Adult
MH  - Alcohol Drinking
MH  - Anxiety/epidemiology
MH  - Behavior, Addictive/*psychology
MH  - Depression/epidemiology
MH  - Female
MH  - Health Surveys
MH  - Humans
MH  - Internet
MH  - Leisure Activities/psychology
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Motivation
MH  - Stress, Psychological/epidemiology
MH  - *Video Games/psychology/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC4405620
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Internet
OT  - behavior, addictive
OT  - coping behavior
OT  - motivation
OT  - psychopathology
OT  - video games
COIS- Conflicts of Interest: None declared.
EDAT- 2015/04/10 06:00
MHDA- 2015/11/13 06:00
PMCR- 2015/04/07
CRDT- 2015/04/10 06:00
PHST- 2014/05/07 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2014/12/20 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2014/11/09 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2015/04/10 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2015/04/10 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2015/11/13 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2015/04/07 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - v17i4e88 [pii]
AID - 10.2196/jmir.3515 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - J Med Internet Res. 2015 Apr 7;17(4):e88. doi: 10.2196/jmir.3515.