The partial truths of compensatory and poor-get-poorer internet use theories: More highly involved videogame players experience greater psychosocial benefits

The Role of Gaming During Difficult Life Experiences

“…With respect to "Gaming as a lifeline", the perceived outcomes were positive, where games were able to provide players with a sense of purpose and in a way that other pastimes were not. As with Snodgrass et al [39], we saw explicit references to how gaming helped people through a range of diicult life experiences, including thoughts of suicide. For many of our participants, there was a sense they would have been worse of without gaming, whether through games ofering achievable goals and respite, or a form of connection.…”

“…It has also been suggested that interacting with others online may be a form of coping with personal diiculties, where "negative life situations can give rise to a motivation to go online to alleviate negative feelings" [21, p. 352]. The efects are not always clear however, where diferent research has indicated that online gaming can both positively or negatively inluence wellbeing [39]. On the basis of their studies, Snodgrass and colleagues suggest that the outcomes depend on the way in which an individual engages online ± where intensive online play can improve wellbeing in lonely players by creating opportunities to bond with others.…”

The cross-cultural expression of internet gaming distress in North America, Europe, and China

“…The achievement motivations results resonated both with the North American emphasis on individual achievement and competition ( D'Andrade, 2008 ), as well as with gaming studies showing links between high achievement motivations and problem play in China ( Caplan et al, 2009 ; Snodgrass et al, 2012 ; Snodgrass, Dengah, Lacy, & Fagan, 2013 ; Yee, 2006 ). Those findings also suggested the importance of loneliness and social isolation in addictive and problem gaming, which echoed a now substantial body of literature ( Kim et al, 2009 ; Nowland et al, 2017 ; Snodgrass et al, 2018 ), as well as specific descriptions of North America ( Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell, & Moore, 2006 ; Putnam, 2000 ; Turkle, 2012 ) and China ( Qian, Hua, & Yongxi, 2016 ) in particular. Too, those findings echoed important relationships in China between concerns over work and life prospects, avoidance of social and other life obligations, and the feeling of being mentally and physically drained, which parallels work by medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman and others on the embodied, somaticized, and neurasthenia-like features of Chinese “mental” suffering in the context of felt social duties ( Kleinman, 1980 ; Kleinman, 1988 ; Lee, 1999 ; Ryder et al, 2008 ; Zhang & Wu, 2005 ).…”

“…But others say that problem gaming is not dominated by addiction symptomology such as cognitive preoccupation, withdrawal, and tolerance ( Aarseth et al, 2016 ; Griffiths et al, 2016 ; Kaptsis, King, Delfabbro, & Gradisar, 2016 ; Van Rooij & Prause, 2014 ). Instead, they show that gaming-related distress can better be assessed by attending to internet gamers' experiences of loneliness ( Kim, Larose, & Peng, 2009 ; Nowland, Necka, & Cacioppo, 2017 ; Snodgrass et al, 2018 ), sense of personal failure ( Snodgrass, Dengah, & Lacy, 2014 ; Yee, 2006 ), low life satisfaction ( Cao, Sun, Wan, Hao, & Tao, 2011 ), need for psychosocial escape from offline stress and life problems ( Kardefelt-Winther, 2014 ; Snodgrass et al, 2014 ), anger and frustration ( Snodgrass et al, 2017 ), unhealthy “toxic” online social interactions ( Consalvo, 2012 ; Massanari, 2017 ), and preexisting mental health problems related to depression and anxiety ( Ko, Yen, Yen, Chen, & Chen, 2012 ; Kraut et al, 2002 ). For these researchers, “problem” online gaming represents a family of diverse responses to complex life problems, a perspective that is lost with a too narrow focus on classic addiction symptomology ( Caplan, Williams, & Yee, 2009 ).…”

“…Specifically, we described the three regional samples, including regional variability in responses to a 21-item scale measuring gaming-related distress, which we developed from prior ethnographic, interview, and survey analysis conducted largely in the United States (see Appendix 1 for this measure's items) ( Snodgrass et al, 2017 ). The 21-item scale includes eight classic IGD symptoms commonly featured in existing scales ( Cho et al, 2014 ; Petry et al, 2014 ; Petry & O'Brien, 2013 ; Pontes et al, 2014 ; Pontes & Griffiths, 2015 ), which represent validated operationalizations of WHO and APA formulations of addictive gaming, as well as 13 additional items emerging from our extensive ethnography ( Snodgrass et al, 2014 ; Snodgrass et al, 2016a , Snodgrass et al, 2016b ; Snodgrass et al, 2017 ; Snodgrass et al, 2018 ; Snodgrass, Dengah, & Lacy, 2014 ). The traditional IGD items included: negative cognitive salience (preoccupation), withdrawal, continue to play despite problems, loss of control/relapse (reduce/stop), loss of interest in other activities, avoidance/mood modification (escape adverse moods), tolerance, and conflict (risk/lose relationships/opportunities).…”