Setting the Game Agenda: Reviewing the Emerging Literature on Video Gaming and Psychological Well-Being of Sexual and Gender Diverse Youth

Cesare, Dane Marco Di; Craig, Shelley L.; Brooks, Ashley S.; Doll, Kaitrin

doi:10.1177/15554120231178883

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…This provides emotionally powerful opportunities to grapple with identity challenges that often reflect back on offline identity concerns, in an environment where such contradictions typically go unnoticed or are treated with acceptance. This might be especially important for marginalized players, such as gender-diverse and neurodiverse youth (Di Cesare et al, 2023). Players use avatars to explore, develop, and rehearse gender expression in a low-stakes environment, affirming their feelings and supporting wellbeing (McKenna et al, 2022;Morgan et al, 2020).…”

Section: Identity Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do video games affect mental health? A narrative review of 13 proposed mechanisms

Ballou,

Hakman,

Vuorre

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Researchers have proposed a variety of mechanisms through which playing video games might affect mental health: by displacing more psychosocially beneficial activities, satisfying or frustrating basic psychological needs, relieving stress, and many more. However, these mechanisms are rarely enumerated, and underlying causal structures are rarely made explicit. Here, we overview 13 proposed effects of gaming on mental health. For each, we attempt to draw out (often implicit) counterfactuals—that is, what concrete aspect of gaming should be changed in a hypothetical alternative universe to produce the effect of interest—and illustrate these with example directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). In doing so, we hope to provide a bird’s eye view of the field and encourage more focused and collaborative efforts to propose, falsify, and iterate on (causal) theories. Only in doing so can the field realize its potential to inform clinical interventions, regulation, game design, and the behavior of players and parents.

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Section: Identity Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%