Prevalence of internet gaming disorder in German adolescents: diagnostic contribution of the nine DSM‐5 criteria in a state‐wide representative sample

Abstract

Based on a state-wide representative school survey in Germany, endorsement of five or more criteria of DSM-5 internet gaming disorder (IGD) occurred in 1.16% of the students, and these students evidence greater impairment compared with non-IGD students. Symptoms related to 'give up other activities', 'tolerance' and 'withdrawal' are most relevant for IGD diagnosis in this age group.

Validation of the Ten-Item Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGDT-10) and evaluation of the nine DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder criteria

“…These findings contrast with those of two recent studies (i.e., Lemmens et al, 2015;Rehbein et al, 2015) that found "escape" was the most frequently endorsed criteria, while "negative consequences" (termed as "conflict" in Lemmens et al's study, and "risk/lose relationship/opportunities" in Rehbein et al's study) was the least endorsed in both the whole sample and among those meeting five or more IGD criteria.…”

“…Based on conditional inference tree analysis, Rehbein et al (2015) reported that the criterion "giving up other activities" and "tolerance" were key in identifying IGD. Being associated with more severe IGD levels in the present study may help explain why endorsement of these criteria corresponds to a high probability of a positive IGD diagnosis (Rehbein et al, 2015).…”

“…Over 20 instruments have been developed to assess problematic gaming but few have been properly validated and the lack of consensual definition led to inconsistencies in the assessment criteria (see King et al, 2013;Király, Nagygyörgy, Koronczai, Griffiths, & Demetrovics, 2015;. The inclusion of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) in Section 3 of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), led to an upsurge of new psychometric tools designed to assess problematic gaming according to the nine DSM-5 IGD criteria (e.g., Lemmens, Valkenburg, & Gentile, 2015;Pontes, Király, Demetrovics, & Griffiths, 2014;Rehbein, Kliem, Baier, Mößle, & Petry, 2015). Additionally, the concept of IGD has stirred debate among scholars in terms of the validity of each nine IGD criteria and how to better operationally define such criteria in light of knowledge on problematic gaming accumulated over three decades (Griffiths, van Rooij, et al, 2015;van Rooij & Prause, 2014).…”

“…Furthermore, a few recently published studies (Ko et al, 2014;Lemmens et al, 2015;Rehbein et al, 2015) examining the usefulness and validity of all nine IGD criteria provided interesting and yet conflicting results. For instance, Rehbein and colleagues (2015) found that the criteria "give up other activities," "tolerance" and "withdrawal" were of key importance for identifying IGD, while Lemmens and colleagues (2015) found "escape" did not add to diagnostic accuracy due to lack of specificity.…”

Commentary on Baggio et al. (2016): Internet/gaming addiction is more than heavy use over time

“…However, based on the differences in their motives and the consequences of their activity, he argued that one of them appeared to be addicted while the other was merely engaged. These findings were supported further by the small-tomoderate correlations between gaming time and addiction reported in several studies [14][15][16][17].…”