Citation

Rho MJ, Lee H, Lee TH, Cho H, Jung DJ, Kim DJ, Choi IY. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2017; 15(1): e15010040.

Affiliation

Catholic Institute for Healthcare Management and Graduate School of Healthcare Management and Policy, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea. iychoi@catholic.ac.kr.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph15010040

PMID

29280953

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Understanding the risk factors associated with Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is important to predict and diagnose the condition. The purpose of this study is to identify risk factors that predict IGD based on psychological factors and Internet gaming characteristics; Methods: Online surveys were conducted between 26 November and 26 December 2014. There were 3568 Korean Internet game users among a total of 5003 respondents. We identified 481 IGD gamers and 3087 normal Internet gamers, based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5) criteria. Logistic regression analysis was applied to identify significant risk factors for IGD; Results: The following eight risk factors were found to be significantly associated with IGD: functional and dysfunctional impulsivity (odds ratio: 1.138), belief self-control (1.034), anxiety (1.086), pursuit of desired appetitive goals (1.105), money spent on gaming (1.005), weekday game time (1.081), offline community meeting attendance (2.060), and game community membership (1.393; p < 0.05 for all eight risk factors); Conclusions: These risk factors allow for the prediction and diagnosis of IGD. In the future, these risk factors could also be used to inform clinical services for IGD diagnosis and treatment.

Language: en

Keywords

Behavioral Inhibition System/Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS); Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS); Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-5); Dickman Impulsivity Inventory-Short Version (DII); Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R); internet gaming disorder