Internet use has become a part of everyday life for most people in the twenty-first century. Its use has spread across from communicating, reading news, socializing, and carrying out business. The Internet is also used for leisure activities, a good example being internet gaming. Internet gaming is an online activity whereby an individual participates in a game mostly involving role-playing with other characters. Internet gaming has had its benefits to gamers, such as obtaining pleasure, attaining a sense of achievement, and providing an opportunity for social interaction (Ko, 2014). Uncontrolled internet gaming, however, leads to addiction with detrimental consequences to the victims (Wang et al., 2019). Individuals lose interest in most of the real-life activities, and all they want to engage in is gaming. The inability to control one’s gaming tendencies and patterns has led to the classification of the condition as a disorder and has been termed by psychologists as internet gaming disorder (IGD).
Although the American Psychiatric Association failed to consider the condition as a mental disorder, the condition has been included in section III of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). A nine-point diagnostic questionnaire for the disorder has been given to help in the diagnosis of the condition (Wang et al., 2019). The American Psychiatric Association calls for more research into the condition to ensure its proper categorization, diagnosis, and treatment.
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Internet gaming disorder has been mainly associated with males (Ko, 2014). Its prevalence is higher in males than in females. The disorder has also been found to be prevalent among adolescents and teenagers. However, the disorder is also common among the youth and the aging persons too. Several factors have been researched and found to contribute to the likelihood of individuals developing an uncontrolled gaming disorder. Low self-esteem and discontent in life have been found to predispose individuals to the condition (Ko, 2014). individuals with high impulsiveness are also likely to be addicted to internet gaming (Ko, 2014). Individuals with low self-esteem and discontent in life use online gaming as an escape avenue to everyday life’s distress. This is quite common, especially in teenagers and adolescents.
Several symptoms have been studied and found to be indicative of internet gaming disorder. Negligence of everyday basic activities in favor of online gaming, withdrawal, and anger due to computer inaccessibility and a high tolerance for more hours of computer use ( González-Bueso et al., 2018) . Development of peculiar habits such as dishonesty, tendency to quarrel, and social isolation have also been cited as some of the symptoms of IGD ( González-Bueso et al., 2018) . Some scholars have named the symptoms of IGD to be primarily three, including conflict, loss of control, and withdrawal.
This study seeks to determine the prevalence of internet gaming disorder among Southern New Hampshire University students. The study hypothesizes that there are more males in the institution with internet gaming disorder than females.
Methods and Results
The study was conducted on a total of 421 students at Southern New Hampshire University. The age of the participants ranged from eighteen to twenty-four years. The number of male and female participants was 221 males and 200 females. A control sample of 100 participants was also involved in the study. The control sample comprised of individuals not engaged in any active internet gaming activities. The subjects for the study were selected based on a random criterion. Consent to undertake the study was obtained from the relevant university heads. Students were informed of the planned research and requested to participate in the study voluntarily. The students were made aware of the different categories for the study. The study involved active internet gamers and non-gamers. The participants were debriefed on the purposes of the study. Participation in the study was voluntary. The participants were, however, briefed on the data particulars that the study would collect to ensure that their participation was consensual and not coerced.
The study was conducted using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). The manual contains nine criteria that are used to diagnose the disorder. The manual is useful for disorder diagnosis when consideration of 12 months is made. Consequently, the participants in the study were assessed based on 12 months. The manual states that the presence of the disorder is indicated by five or more of the nine criteria. The nine criteria are preoccupation with games, withdrawal symptoms comprising of irritability, anxiety, and sadness when gaming is withdrawn, tolerance of long gaming hours, failed attempts to control gaming, and lack of interest in real-life activities such as hobbies and relationships (Gentile et al., 2014). Continued immoderate gaming despite knowledge of psychological problems, deception of the amount of time spent gaming, use of games as an escapism from negative moods and loss of opportunities, relationship, and educational performance due to gaming are also part of the nine-point criteria (Gentile et al., 2014).
To ensure easier participation in the study, the nine-point criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition were framed in a questionnaire format. To make the data collection activity easy, the questions were made available through an online platform. An online portal with the questions for the study was developed. All participants enlisted in the study could easily login to the platform and complete their questions. Data collection through the online platform helped to increase the credibility and reliability of the data. This is because the participants were under no pressure as it is common in face to face answering of questionnaires. Participants were therefore not inclined to give certain ‘desired’ responses, thus reducing social desirability bias. The platform was also convenient for the participants as they could participate in the study from the comfort of their rooms. The study was conducted between September to October of 2019. Email reminders were sent to the participants reminding them to participate in the study.
The analysis of the collected data was carried out using statistical software SPSS version 23. Out of the 421 participants enlisted in the study, 83.1 percent representing 350 of the participants completely answered the questions in the questionnaire. This was the number of participants considered during data analysis, and the rest were referred to as missing information. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Means and standard deviations were used to analyze the responses depending on age, the gender of the participants, and their responses according to the nine-point criteria. The results of the study indicated that 15 percent of the male participants had internet gaming disorder as compared to 5 percent of the female participants. There was no correlation between internet gaming disorder with age. The results of the study indicated that the disorder was randomly present amongst individuals of different ages ranging from 18 to 24 years.
Discussion
The results of the study helped prove the hypothesis of the study that internet gaming disorder was more prevalent in males than in females. The study does not depart away from other studies that have found similar results. One study in the US found the prevalence of internet gaming disorder to be 11.9 percent and 2.9 percent for males and females, respectively (Papulus et al., 2018). No correlation between internet gaming disorder and age was found. The lack of correlation of age with the gaming disorder can be attributed to the small age difference considered for the study. The small age difference for the participants can be cited as one of the limitations of this study.
Conclusion
Internet gaming disorder is indeed, a prevalent condition in today's society. Despite the American Psychiatrists Association's failure to categorize it as a mental disorder, it is a menace. The detriments of the disorder have been on the rise. Some of the detriments have been to the extreme such as incidences of suicide. Thus, further research into this disorder is required. Treatment methods are one of the areas of research that need to be considered.
References
Gentile, D. A., Bailey, K., Bavelier, D., Brockmyer, J. F., Cash, H., Coyne, S. M., ... & Markle, T. (2017). Internet gaming disorder in children and adolescents. Pediatrics , 140 (Supplement 2), S81-S85.
González-Bueso, V., Santamaría, J. J., Fernández, D., Merino, L., Montero, E., Jiménez-Murcia, S., ... & Ribas, J. (2018). Internet gaming disorder in adolescents: Personality, psychopathology, and evaluation of a psychological intervention combined with parent psychoeducation. Frontiers in psychology , 9 , 787.
Ko, C. H. (2014). Internet gaming disorder. Current Addiction Reports , 1 (3), 177-185.
Paulus, F. W., Ohmann, S., Von Gontard, A., & Popow, C. (2018). Internet gaming disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology , 60 (7), 645-659.
Wang, Q., Ren, H., Long, J., Liu, Y., & Liu, T. (2019). Research progress and debates on gaming disorder. General psychiatry , 32 (3).
