Risk and protective factors of Internet gaming disorder among Chinese people: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Objectives: Effective prevention and intervention of Internet gaming disorder require the identification of risk and protective factors. This study aims to exhaustively review the risk and protective factors of Internet gaming disorder among Chinese people. Method: We searched for articles published from database inception to February 2020 in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science and two Chinese databases, CNKI and Wanfang Data. Studies were included in the meta-analysis if they addressed Internet gaming disorder, sampled people in China, presented correlational factors of Internet gaming disorder and reported the effect sizes for correlations. Reviewers independently selected the studies, assessed their validity and extracted the data. Pooled Pearson’s correlations were calculated using the random effects model. Result: In the meta-analysis, 153 studies covering 115,975 subjects were included. We identified 56 risk factors and 28 protective factors. Most risk factors strongly correlated with Internet gaming disorder fell into the category of maladaptive cognitions and motivations. Other factors that showed high effect sizes fell into various categories, including psychopathological characteristics, personality traits, cognition emotion regulation style and gaming-related factors. The only protective factor strongly correlated with Internet gaming disorder was self-control. We found that the factors related to the ‘environments’ show modest effect sizes compared to those related to the individual. The pooled effect sizes for most factors were not influenced by outliers and publication bias. Conclusion: Factors strongly correlated with Internet gaming disorder, especially maladaptive cognitions and motivations, are more likely to be proximal correlates of Internet gaming disorder and may be considered the focus of interventions. We encourage further empirical and experimental studies to examine the causal pathway and the treatment efficacy.

Neural activations to loss anticipation mediates the association between difficulties in emotion regulation and screen media activities among early adolescent youth: A moderating role for depression

“…In addition to replicating the positive relationship between DER and SMAs ( Ji et al, 2021 , Marchica et al, 2020 ), the present study further identified neural activations during loss anticipation as an underlying neural mechanism that accounted for the association between DER and SMAs. Specifically, activations in the AI and DLPFC during loss anticipation served as linking mechanisms in the associations between DER and SMAs.…”

Risk and protective factors for (internet) gaming disorder: A meta-analysis

“…Ostinelli et al (2021) reported pooled prevalence of 32% for comorbidity of depression and pooled BDI score of 10.31 in individuals with significant IGD symptoms. A recently published meta-analysis by Ji et al (2021) summarized the risk and protective factors of IGD in a Chinese population. They identified maladaptive cognitions, achievement motivation, and rule-breaking behavior as the strongest risk factors, while selfcontrol, school climate, and school engagement seemed to act protectively.…”

Differences between recreational gamers and Internet Gaming Disorder candidates in a sample of Animal Crossing: New Horizons players

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“…Since mere time spent on gaming was found to be a poor predictor of negative health outcomes of players and IGD 30 – 34 , research has explored associated risk and protective factors. IGD appeared associated with younger age 10 , 35 – 37 and male sex 11 , 13 , 16 , 19 , 21 , 36 , 38 .…”