Self-Reported and Parental Assessments of Internet Gaming Disorder, and Their Accordance with DSM-5 Criteria in a Clinical Relevant Population

Adolescent problematic gaming and its association with maternal behaviors: A dyadic study focusing on the relational-emotional correlates

INTRODUCTION

Associations between Problematic Gaming (PG) and the relational-emotional correlates of parenting have been reported in the literature. Previous research mostly collected information from adolescents, however, and suggested that little is known about the perceptions of parents and whether these are shared among parent-adolescent dyads. Therefore, this study aimed to (a) examine multiple informants' reports of adolescent PG and maternal behaviors (i.e., warmth and indifference) and (b) disentangle the associations between the behaviors shared by mothers and adolescents from those unique to each member.

METHOD

Data were collected by using self-administered online questionnaires from 137 Italian mother-adolescent dyads in Italy. The mean age of adolescents (n = 92 males, n = 42 females, n = 3 nonbinary) was 14.68 (±1.25) years and that of mothers 47.48 (±4.69) years. Descriptive statistics and common fate model (CFM) analyses were conducted.

RESULTS

Mothers reported higher scores of their offspring's PG. Within-reporter interclass correlations revealed positive associations between maternal indifference and adolescent PG for both informants. CFM indicated that correlations between maternal behaviors and adolescent PG based on shared perceptions did not reach statistical significance, whereas correlations based on unique mothers' perceptions were statistically significant for all the observed relationships.

CONCLUSIONS

In the context of adolescent PG, mothers may have a heightened motivation to perceive their parenting as crucial. The multi-informant approach allows a more accurate examination of the associations between adolescent PG and maternal behaviors and underscores the need to consider discordant assessment of the same phenomenon between mothers and adolescents.

Parenting in the Prevention of Internet Gaming Addiction

Game addiction, smartphone addiction, and Internet disorder in children and adolescents have become the subject of parental concern in recent years. Parenting interventions are the most appropriate choice for parents to reduce excessive use of problematic games, and this review has not been carried out by other researchers before. The purpose of this review was to describe the preventive management of parenting in children and adolescents who are at risk for game addiction, smartphone addiction, and Internet disorders. This paper reviews findings, trends, and new developments in the field concerned (n = 5 studies). The current research was conducted based on a literature search with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses, and articles were searched with five databases: ProQuest, Ebscohost, Springer Link, PubMed, and Scopus. Furthermore, the keywords used are MeSH determination based on PICOS framework using keywords of Game Disorder OR Smartphone Addictions OR Internet Disorder, parenting, as well as prevention without a time limit for publishing articles. In conclusion, parenting programs are a preventive method that needs to be understood and developed in order to provide significant results in long-term management of game addiction, smartphone addiction, and Internet disorders.

Autism, Problematic Internet Use and Gaming Disorder: A Systematic Review

The present study investigated the association between autism and problematic internet use (PIU) and gaming disorder (GD). A systematic literature search was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. A total of 2286 publications were screened, and 21 were deemed eligible for inclusion in the review. The majority of the studies found positive associations between PIU and subclinical autistic-like traits with weak and moderate effect sizes and between PIU and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with varying effect sizes. Additionally, individuals with ASD were more likely to exhibit symptoms of GD with moderate and strong effect sizes. Future research would benefit from high-quality studies examining GD and PIU at a clinical level and their relationship with both clinical and subclinical autism.