Gaming and Covid-19

"Videogames use has constantly increased among children and adolescents, with uncertain consequences on their health. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of videogames use and addiction in a sample of Italian children during the COVID-19 pandemic and their association with anxiety symptoms.

Males reported to spend more time on videogames, to perceive higher self-control and to be more influenced by reinforcement mechanisms; females described higher levels of trait anxiety. In the regression analysis, state anxiety was a predictor of videogame use and addiction.

Overall, 96.3% of the 162 children recruited reported access to one or more devices used to play videogames (console (65.4%), smartphone (56.2%), tablet (48.1%) or personal computer (36.4%)). Their favorite games were Fortnite (21.6%), FIFA (10.5%), Minecraft (7.4%), SuperMario (6.2%) and Just Dance (4.3%).

We found an average score at the VASC of 46.7, indicating a low risk of videogame addiction; the average score at the TAD was 135, indicating a moderate level of pathological trait anxiety; as for the CAM-S, a low level of state anxiety was reported (average 2.2)."

According to this, males are more in control when playing video games than females? How much of this is true? Any thoughts? Especially to our ladies out there?

These were children so it's an entirely different sample than let's say females on gamespot.

What is the source for that?

Usually, I tend to discard studies that put "players" in the same batch. It just reveals a serious lack of knowledge on the subject. You cannot put FPS, online gaming, and RPG players in the same batch and call them gamers. Those profiles are vastly different.

It's like saying books turn people violent.

I believe that the female mind is constantly in self-review in comparison to the expected professionalism of a male when it comes to games. Then everything they do in games, especially online competition games puts them on edge to a perceived UBER-MAN which level is an impossibility for the penis envying young woman.

On the other hand.

Women who master their own perceived inadequacies may well be better than males in the multi-task arena of RTS.

It's a generation thing maybe.

Here's the source link btw. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8001544/ Cheers.

Thanks for the link, I just read the abstract and the conclusion, note that males perceived themselves to be more in control; they used self-administered questionnaires. We're talking 10-year-old boys here, heavy self-enhancement bias and lackluster self-analytic abilities should be taken into account. I doubt many kids that age would say "I feel like I can't control my gaming".

The pandemic had a lot of social behaviors prop up that haven’t been seen in a hundred years and are ripe for studying.

However, the author was curiously interested in how videogame use specifically harmed the subjects instead of, say, helped them cope.

LOL, Fortnite, FIFA and Minecraft... Why don't they focus on how Ubi uses the AC series to teach, or MS with Minecraft?

I think factors of who was into gaming already pre-pandemic. I know in my social circles that those that were gamers just gamed more and it was a convenient excuse to stay home and do what comes naturally to ourselves. I know for people who like to get out a lot more that social distancing measures and scaling back of business access (which in part serve as social venues) made the whole affair a real challenge to endure. But for me, I could be engaged with friends online from home. I also got some social stimulation outside of home because one of my jobs was an essential one but I didn't work it more than I had to.

Funny, the gaming addiction percentage is really low, I have often heard among those who use recreational illicit drugs only a smaller percentage develop addictive habits from it. Maybe there's a connection of how people tend to cope with anxiety. I don't think these bad habits necessarily create the anxiety people have but allow them an avenue to regress into to escape a harsher reality they don't have the ability to cope with. I know myself when I have abstained long periods from gaming I tend to obsess about something else that will consume me in a similar way.

Um I am pretty sure it has been established videogames cause mental illness. Thus look at our current generation and explain why everything is so messed up.

@zebrafishguy: No I would wager social media has much more of a hand in causing mental illness than gaming does. Gaming doesn't focus on you posting status updates, uploading pictures of yourself, or sending out a tweet that can (and often does) escalate into a furious tantrum of random people disagreeing with each other and sending out death threats and some such.

Although you might be right when it comes to online gaming, now that I think of it. Lots of hate there. I was thinking more of Single player games where the focus is more on having fun and going at your own pace rather than getting good at a game or failing and having opponents and teammates trash-talk you over and over again.

@poe13: yeah that's hard to argue against anything you said lol

Yeah I would wager online games affect mental illness more than a single player campaign in a general sense.

Gaming affects us all differently regardless of age or gender. It's all about the individual and their personality types.