Early substance consumption and problematic use of video games in adolescence

Abstract

Substance use as well as use of video games is frequent among young people. The purpose of this research was to study the links between the use of video games and the consumption of various substances such as alcohol, tobacco or cannabis at adolescence. In order to do so, 1423 students from middle and high schools filled an auto-questionnaire that included questions on age, gender, year of study, use of video games and consumptions of alcohol (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test Short version, AUDIT-C), tobacco (Heaviness of Smoking Index, HSI), and cannabis (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test, CAST). We found that 92.1% of teens use video games and 17.7% have a problematic use of video games (PUVG). Furthermore, results show that substance consumption seems frequent with 19.8 and 8.3% of participants having hazardous alcohol and cannabis consumptions respectively and 5.2% having a moderate to high tobacco dependence. Video gamers consumed significantly more alcohol and gamers with PUVG started their substance consumption (alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis) earlier. PUVG was found to be negatively correlated to age at first substance consumption, but positively correlated to the time spent playing video games. However, it was not correlated to risks of substance dependence (scores of AUDIT-C, HSI, and CAST). Finally, our results are consistent with the literature, in regard to frequency of substance use and use of video games in adolescence. These data will allow for a better consideration of prevention strategies and future care in this particular field.

Smoking, ADHD, and Problematic Video Game Use: A Structural Modeling Approach

“…In particular, the data suggest that ADHD symptomatology, cigarette use, and video game use may all contribute to problematic or addictive use of video games; together, ADHD, smoking, and video game use explained 41.8% of the variance in PVGU. This finding is consistent with previous studies, which examined the effect of ADHD symptomatology (Bioulac et al, 2008;Weinstein & Weizman, 2012;Weiss et al, 2011), smoking (Desai et al, 2010;Ream et al, 2011b;Van Rooij et al, 2014), and video game use (Coëffec et al, 2015;Ream et al, 2011b) on PVGU, but all independent of each other.…”

“…Ream et al (2011b) found that video gaming as an enthusiastic hobby, defined as the number of days spent playing video games in the last 30 days, was positively associated with PVGU. In addition, Coëffec et al (2015) found that individuals with PVGU tend to spend more time on video games compared to individuals without PVGU.…”

“…Some researchers studying video game addictions employ diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -4th edition (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) adapted for video game use (Coëffec et al, 2015;Gentile et al, 2011;Ream, Elliott, & Dunlap, 2011b;Weinstein & Weizman, 2012). Others study problematic video game use (PVGU), which is a more general term that may refer to a large number of hours of video game use per day (Wenzel, Bakken, Johansson, Götestam, & Øren, 2009), or to high scores on questionnaires designed to measure addiction-like use of video games (Ream et al, 2011b;Van Rooij et al, 2014;Walther, Morgenstern, & Hanewinkel, 2012).…”

Problematic Gaming Is Associated with Some Health-Related Behaviors Among Finnish Vocational School Students

“…However, it is worth noting that van Rooij et al (2014) focused solely on adolescent students, whereas this study included both adolescent and adult participants. A recent study by Rho et al (2017) found no connection between alcohol and nicotine dependence and problematic gaming among adults, but a different study indicated that an earlier age of first use of cigarettes, alcohol, and cannabis during adolescence was linked to an increased risk of problematic gaming (Coëffec et al 2015).…”

La eficacia de los protocolos de intervención con enfoque familiar para el tratamiento de los adolescentes consumidores de drogas: una revisión sistemática

“…Além disso, observam-se consequências indiretas, como adição a video games (Coëffec et al, 2015), aumento da criminalidade e da prevalência de patologias orgânicas (Haug et al, 2014) e psiquiátricas (Weissman et al, 2015).…”