Time to call for a global public health approach in prevention of the onset and progression of problematic gaming

Systematic review of health promotion policies or regulations with CCAT theory

One of the five Ottawa Charter's means of action is the concept of "healthy public policy," which is an approach to health promotion that is integrated with public policy. This concept can be used as an approach/method in solving health problems at the broader policy level and involving all sectors comprehensively, not just health promotion at the community level and the partial health sector, so that public health problems can be resolved properly. We conducted a systematic review of health promotion policies or regulations using CCAT theory. The purpose of this study is to find the state of the art of research related to stakeholder synergy in online game addiction prevention policies in adolescents. References and literature for this systematic review were collected from the Proquest, ScienceDirect, Pubmed, and Google Scholar databases. The search uses the boolean phrases "OR" and "AND." Keywords: policy or regulation, health promotion, and community coalition action theory. The results of the systematic review conducted by the researchers showed that of the twenty selected articles, three articles used the coalition/partnership dimension from the CCAT theory, four articles used the stakeholder dimension, two articles used the collaboration dimension, five articles discussed school health policies, policies related to gaming disorders. One article on the analysis of the juvenile contraceptive law, one article on the prevention of mental health disorders, one article on health promotion interventions, and two articles on risk factors and self-regulation focus on online gaming addiction in adolescents. This study concludes that in the future, further research is needed regarding health promotion policies to prevent online game addiction in adolescents to develop specific policy recommendations related to preventing online game addiction in adolescents.

Risk Factors for Excessive Social Media Use Differ from Those of Gambling and Gaming in Finnish Youth

Purpose: Adolescents’ excessive social media use has characteristics similar to other addictive behaviours. This study aims to explore whether the same risk factors are associated with excessive social media use as with excessive gaming and gambling among Finnish adolescents. Methods: Multinomial logistic regression analyses were carried out using the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs data, collected from Finnish adolescents aged 15–16 in 2019 (n = 4595). Results: Excessive use of social media was more common among girls (reported by 46% of respondents) than boys of the same age (28%), whereas boys reported both excessive gaming (23%) and gambling (6%) more often than girls (4% and 1%, respectively). All differences between genders were statistically significant (p < 0.0001). Daily smoking was associated with a high risk of excessive gambling (AOR = 3.23) and low risk of excessive gaming (AOR = 0.27) but had no significant effect on excessive social media use. Cannabis use in the past 12 months was positively associated only with excessive gambling (AOR = 2.39), while past 12 months alcohol consumption increased the risk for excessive social media use (AOR = 1.25). Conclusions: Adolescent girls are at greater risk of excessive social media use than boys, while boys are at greater risk of excessive gaming and gambling. The associations with known risk factors are somewhat different for excessive use of social media as compared to excessive gambling and gaming and should be acknowledged when developing preventive measures for adolescents.

Policy Recommendations for Preventing Problematic Internet Use in Schools: A Qualitative Study of Parental Perspectives

Parenting in the digital age has been characterized as one of the most challenging tasks of the modern era. Parents are ambivalent about their mediating role. However, problematic aspects of adolescent online use have not been adequately addressed in education. The present study investigated parental perceptions of intervention needs within schools to prevent excessive/problematic use, enhance parent-child communication, and reduce family conflicts. Nine interviews with parents of adolescents residing in the UK were carried out and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Three main themes emerged as parental proposals: (i) schools as digital education providers and prevention hubs, (ii) provision of mental health literacy to raise awareness, resolve ambiguity regarding impacts and mitigate excessive use and impacts, and (iii) psychoeducation and upskilling. The third theme related to impacts from time spent on screens (time displacement), content-related impacts, and context-related impacts. The present study offers recommendations for media literacy during adolescence beyond e-safety (i.e., addressing interpersonal communication problems, privacy vs. disclosure issues), based on parents' views, and provides new insights for media and emotional health literacy collaboration efforts. Future work should investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of such interventions to support the emotional health of young people and prevent problematic internet use escalation.

Association of harsh parenting and maltreatment with internet addiction, and the mediating role of bullying and social support

Growing evidence has shown that exposure to harsh parenting and child maltreatment elevate the risk of Internet addiction in adolescence. Yet, limited research has examined the mechanisms underlying this association. The present study was a cross-sectional school survey of 1204 adolescents (52.2 % male and 47.8 % female; mean age, 13.36 years) in Hong Kong. The adolescents completed a self-reported questionnaire about their exposure to bullying victimization, bullying perpetration, child maltreatment, Internet addiction, and social support. The findings showed that harsh parenting and maltreatment was significantly associated with Internet addiction. After controlling for a number of confounding factors, the results of the mediation analyses showed that family support and bullying perpetration, and family support and bullying victimization accounted for 36 % and 25 % of the effect of harsh discipline and maltreatment on Internet addiction, respectively. Effective prevention and intervention strategies for Internet addiction should target family and social vulnerabilities in adolescents.

Effects of computer gaming on cognition, brain structure, and function: a critical reflection on existing literature

Video gaming as a popular form of leisure activity and its effect on cognition, brain function, and structure has come into focus in the field of neuroscience. Visuospatial cognition and attention seem to benefit the most, whereas for executive functions, memory, and general cognition, the results are contradictory. The particular characteristics of video games driving these effects remain poorly understood. We critically discuss major challenges for the existing research, namely, the lack of precise definitions of video gaming, the lack of distinct choice of cognitive ability under study, and the lack of standardized study protocols. Less research exists on neural changes in addition to cognitive changes due to video gaming. Existing studies reveal evidence for the involvement of similar brain regions in functional and structural changes. There seems to be a predominance in the hippocampal, prefrontal, and parietal brain regions; however, studies differ immensely, which makes a meta-analytic interpretation vulnerable. We conclude that theoretical work is urgently needed.


Will esports result in a higher prevalence of problematic gaming? A review of the global situation

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Video gaming is highly prevalent in modern culture, particularly among young people, and a healthy hobby for the majority of users. However, in recent years, there has been increasing global recognition that excessive video gaming may lead to marked functional impairment and psychological distress for a significant minority of players. Esports is a variant of video gaming. It is a relatively new phenomenon but has attracted a considerable number of followers across the world and is a multimillion dollar industry. The aim of this briefing paper is to review the global situation on esports and related public health implications.

METHODS

A non-systematic review was conducted. Information obtained from the Internet and PubMed was collated and presented as genres of games, varieties and magnitudes of impacts, popularity, fiscal impact in monetary terms, government involvement, and public health implications.

RESULTS

There are several different kinds of esports but there was no clear categorization on the genre of games. Many tournaments have been organized by gaming companies across the world with huge prize pools, and some of these events have government support. Little information on the health effects associated with esports was identified.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

A majority of the sources of information were from commercial settings, and failed to declare conflicts of interest, which may result in a biased picture of the current situation. When gaming activity is being further promoted under the umbrella of esports, it seems reasonable to expect an increase in problematic gaming and thus increased prevalence of gaming disorder and hazardous gaming. With increasing demand for treatment services for gaming addition/disorder in different countries across the world, it is a significant public health concern. More empirically based research on this topic is needed.

Adolescent Internet Addiction in Hong Kong: Prevalence, Psychosocial Correlates, and Prevention

The prevalence of Internet addiction (IA) and its correlates among Hong Kong adolescents and local prevention programs for adolescents' IA were reviewed and analyzed, with a view to identifying service gaps and making suggestions on ways forward. From 8 papers identified from ProQuest and EBSCOhost, published from 2009 to 2018, the local prevalence rates of IA in adolescents were noted to range from 3.0% to 26.8%, which was higher than that in other regions of the world. The more recent the studies, the higher the prevalence rate. Seven papers provided the correlates of IA. Risk factors for IA included being male, higher school grade, poor academic performance, with depression, suicidal ideation, from disorganized family, with family members having IA, parents with lower education level, and using restrictive parenting style. Teens with self-confidence, higher school performance, having positive youth development qualities, with well-educated parents, were found to be protective against IA. IA adversely affects adolescents' growth and physical, mental, and psychosocial development. Ten prevention programs were identified from these search engines as well as government departments and agencies' Web sites. They all focused on education, skills training, behavior modification, and raising public awareness. Unlike tobacco and alcohol, the Internet is a tool, and media literacy has become an essential skill. Based on current evidence, modifiable protective factors should be strengthened to curb the problem.