Navigating the Spectrum: Unraveling Emotional Insights and Motivational Dynamics from Playful Engagement to Gaming Disorder

Background and objectives:

The immense popularity of video games signifies their capacity to fulfill basic needs. This research intends to explore the psychological influences of gaming habits, distinguishing profiles that range from healthy engagement to gaming disorder.

Methodology:

This cross-sectional analysis surveyed 5,222 individuals. The international cohort included teenagers and adults (16-69 years, M = 25.6 years, SD = 6.44), with 48.66% identifying as male (n = 2,541; M = 26.4, SD = 7.03), 42.32% as female (n = 2,210; M = 25.1, SD = 5.78), and 9.02% as non-binary individuals (n = 471; M = 23.3, SD = 5.23), encompassing both casual gamers and professional esports players. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was utilized to differentiate various psychological profiles. The indicators for these profiles included emotional regulation and the motivations behind playing video games. The correlates assessed involved symptoms of gaming disorder, duration of gaming activity, and sociodemographic factors.

Findings:

The LPA identified four distinct profiles: avoidant (20.16%), engaged (38.95%), relational (26.01%), and dysregulated (15.78%). Findings indicated that the dysregulated profile exhibited the most significant challenges with emotional regulation, displayed low levels of general motivation, and showed less enthusiasm for recreational gaming, posing the greatest risk for developing a gaming disorder.

Analysis and conclusions:

The results of this research offer the first categorization of significant psychological factors influencing gamers’ behavior across diverse game types, considering three gender identities. These profiles can assist scholars and practitioners in pursuing further investigations into targeted prevention and intervention strategies tailored to the specific traits of each profile, helping to foster healthy gaming practices and lessen the risks and adverse effects linked to gaming disorder.

Keywords:

Latent profile analysis; emotional regulation; gaming disorder; motivation; profiles; video games.

This page was generated automatically; to access the article in its initial location, you may visit the link below:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39819889/
should you wish to request the removal of this article from our website, please reach out to us