Peer-Reviewed Study

Going Beyond Video Game Consumption When Considering Internet Gaming Disorder

Aug 2024 🌐 Comprehensive Psychiatry (Elsevier) PEER-REVIEWED PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

In this Comprehensive Psychiatry study, Sezen Cekic, Michael Rich, and co-authors from the University of Geneva and Boston Children's Hospital test a common assumption: that simply playing video games for long hours predicts Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). Studying League of Legends players using self-reported habits and objective in-game data alongside mental-health assessments, the team found no consistent link between hours played — even among people gaming 30-plus hours a week — and IGD status. Instead, pre-existing anxiety, depression, and ADHD emerged as the strongest predictors of which heavy players met IGD criteria. The authors argue screen-time limits alone are an incomplete response to gaming-related distress, and that clinicians and parents should weigh a young person's underlying mental health alongside how much they play, rather than treating hours logged as the central warning sign. TechKids Foundation cites it as a caution against relying on time-spent alone as a marker of harm.

No stable IGD link found even among 30+ hrs/week players

Playtime, whether self-reported or objectively logged, did not consistently predict Internet Gaming Disorder status in the study sample, including among participants playing 30 or more hours weekly.

Anxiety, depression, and ADHD were the strongest predictors of IGD

Pre-existing mental-health and attention-related conditions, not amount of play, were the factors most associated with meeting Internet Gaming Disorder criteria in this sample.

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CITATION

Cekic, Sezen, Benoît Bediou, Sophia Achab, Michael Rich, C. Shawn Green, and Daphné Bavelier. "Going Beyond Video Game Consumption When Considering Internet Gaming Disorder." Comprehensive Psychiatry 133 (August 2024): 152500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2024.152500

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