Loneliness, family harmony, and disordered gaming in gamers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Gaming disorder has been associated with increased loneliness as well as poorer family relationships. Additionally, loneliness as well as dysfunctional family relations may have exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the current work was to investigate (1) how loneliness, family relations, and gaming disorder are associated in a sample of gamers, and (2) if there are group differences between these associations in gamers who responded to the survey before and during the pandemic years. The effective sample comprised 47819 people (age M = 25.76;SD = 7.42;90.3% men, 9.7% women) who responded to an Englishlanguage online survey regarding gaming and other variables of relevance. Respondents took part in the cross-sectional study between 2019-2021, that is, some people responded before and some during the pandemic years. Bivariate correlation analysis results showed that higher gaming disorder scores were associated with experiencing more loneliness and less harmony in family relationships. The results of analysis of variance tests showed that people who took part in the survey in 2019 scored lower on the gaming disorder, loneliness, and family relations scales than participants who took part in the study during 2020 and 2021. This study provides empirical evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic might have affected the psychological health as well as social relations of gamers in a negative way.