Influence of an Esports Program on Problematic Gaming in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Esports (electronic sports) programs are a variant of competitive gaming and have expanded worldwide in recent years. The prevalence of problematic gaming and gaming disorders (GD) is predicted to increase in adolescents. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have a high rate of digital gaming use, and their characteristics, such as social communication deficits and restricted interests, might contribute to problematic gaming. In this study, we aimed to examine whether participation in an Esports program would lead to problematic gaming or GD in children with ASD. The Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGD-20) scores, Kid-KINDL scores, and gaming time at home were assessed in eight children with ASD before beginning the Esports program and at the three-month follow-up timepoint. The program was held once a week at the welfare service center, where the participants played a set game for 60 min. The results indicated there was no significant worsening in any of the scores after the program. Our program provided the participation time and frequency of Esports, type of game, and motivation of the participants are adequately considered. Even though this pilot study is limited by the small sample size, we concluded that the risk of these activities leading to problematic gaming might be low.

Beyond the Screen: Do Esports Participants Really Have More Physical Health Problems?

“…For the selection criteria of the esports population, we primarily included players who actively participate in mainstream esports game types and have engaged in the game within the past six months [47,49]. Although there is currently no widely accepted and universally recognized comprehensive definition of esports [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10], it is generally acknowledged that esports, in a broad sense, must involve competitive electronic gaming [50][51][52]. The selection of these six game genres also took into consideration the types of esports events included in the 2023 Asian Games, which aligns with the current esports landscape in Asia.…”

“…Moreover, an increasing number of academics and researchers are beginning to explore esports from an academic perspective, and the number of published papers related to esports has significantly increased since 2020 [3]. Nevertheless, there is still no widely accepted definition of esports in esports research [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. However, most academics agree that although esports originates from computer games or video games, it cannot be fully equated with video games or electronic games in general [11][12][13][14][15][16].…”