Assessment of Hazardous Gaming in children and its dissimilarities and overlaps with Internet Gaming Disorder.

Background and aims: Children have been vastly overlooked in Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Hazardous Gaming research so far. The diagnoses are listed in different ICD-11 chapters (addiction vs. problematic health condition) and are thus considered as distinct constructs. However, screening tools for children do not exist yet. We aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of an existing IGD screening tool modified to also assess Hazardous Gaming in children. Further, we aimed to compare the dissimilarity and overlap between (subclinical) IGD and Hazardous Gaming in children. Methods: The study analyzed data from a mixed school and clinical sample. Data from N = 871 children aged between 8 and 12 years of age (M = 10.3, SD = 0.90) were analyzed. Data were collected via the Video Game Dependency Scale (CSAS) in its parent report version, which was adapted to assess Hazardous Gaming symptoms in addition to the IGD symptoms. Item analyses and reliability and factor analyses were conducted on the Hazardous Gaming version. Results: The results show that the adapted CSAS version that assesses Hazardous Gaming symptoms in children mostly shows acceptable psychometric properties. Explorative Factor Analysis (EFA) shows a two-factor structure with one factor of higher order. Additionally, results show that 35.2% of all children meeting the threshold for Hazardous Gaming exclusively meet criteria for Hazardous Gaming but not for (subclinical) IGD. Vice versa, 91.3% of children with IGD also meet the criteria for Hazardous Gaming. Discussion: Hazardous Gaming and (subclinical) IGD are distinct constructs with some overlaps and might have a temporal relation. We recommend adding four items to assess Hazardous Gaming using the CSAS and further evaluate the validity. The assessment of Hazardous Gaming in children is crucial because it might occur earlier than subclinical or full-syndrome IGD.

Depression and Social Anxiety Predict Internet Use Disorder Symptoms in Children and Adolescents at 12-Month Follow-Up: Results From a Longitudinal Study.

Trajectories of internalizing disorders and behavioral addictions are still largely unknown. Research shows that both disorders are highly comorbid. Previous longitudinal studies have focused on associations between internalizing disorders and behavioral addictions using screening instruments. Our aim was to develop and examine a theory-based model of trajectories, according to which internalizing disorders foster symptoms of Internet use disorders, mediated by a reward deprivation and maladaptive emotion regulation. We applied clinically relevant measures for depression and social anxiety in a prospective longitudinal study with a 12-month follow-up investigation. On the basis of an at-risk population of 476 students (mean age = 14.99 years, SD = 1.99), we investigated the predictive influence of clinically relevant depression and social anxiety at baseline (t1) on Internet use disorder symptoms at 12-month follow-up (t2) using multiple linear regression analyses. Our results showed that both clinically relevant depression and social anxiety significantly predicted symptom severity of Internet use disorders one year later after controlling for baseline symptoms of Internet use disorders, gender and age. These results remained robust after including both depression and social anxiety simultaneously in the model, indicating an independent influence of both predictors on Internet use disorder symptoms. The present study enhances knowledge going beyond a mere association between internalizing disorders and Internet use disorders. To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating clinically relevant depression and social anxiety to predict future Internet use disorder symptoms at 12-month follow-up. In line with our model of trajectories, a significant temporal relationship between clinically relevant internalizing disorders and Internet use disorder symptoms at 12-month follow-up was confirmed. Further studies should investigate the mediating role of reward deprivation and maladaptive emotion regulation, as postulated in our model. One implication of these findings is that clinicians should pay particular attention to the increased risk of developing behavioral addictions for adolescents with depression and social anxiety.