- Empirical evidence on the correlation between gaming time level and gaming disorder is unclear
- Decreasing trend in average gaming time and level of problematic gaming behavior among children, adolescents, and adults
- Game users with high self-efficacy and academic achievement satisfaction use games in a positive way.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Yoo In-chon) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (Acting President Yoo Hyeon-seok, hereinafter referred to as KOCCA) will publish the game user research reports (hereinafter referred to as the Panel Study) and (hereinafter referred to as the Cohort Study) on the 20th.
◆ Providing implications for listing WHO gaming disorder disease code
The two newly published reports provide insights into the issue of registering gaming disorder as a disease code by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019.
The panel study conducted a long-term follow-up investigation on the relationship between game users’ gaming behavior types and various factors such as education, economy, society, and psychology. From 2020 (Year 1) to 2023 (Year 4), 929 children and adolescents and 705 adults who participated in the game user panel survey were classified into gaming behavior types, and the probability that gaming behavior characteristics such as gaming time, social and psychological factors, and learning factors were included in a specific gaming behavior type was analyzed.
The cohort study, which refers to a prospective follow-up study, was conducted to reveal neutral and medical evidence on behavioral and brain changes that occur after using Internet games. To this end, the brain structure and function were examined through intelligence tests and brain MRI scans based on the elementary, middle, and high school cohort recruited in 2021 and 2022, and a self-report questionnaire was also conducted.
◆ No respondents who maintained the over-immersion group for more than 2 years.. Natural decline with age
The results of the survey showed that both children, adolescents, and adults showed a continuous decrease in the amount of time they spent playing games and the duration of playing games. In addition, it was confirmed that after being included in the over-immersion group or the over-immersion risk group, the amount of time they spent playing games and the duration of playing games were lower than before.
In addition, the time spent playing games did not act as a factor in differentiating between the group of game users who used games for positive purposes and the group of game over-immersion users who used games for problematic purposes. Since there was no difference in clinical brain activation changes between the gaming behavior types groups, it was found that the evidence that the time spent playing games directly affected gaming disorders was unclear.
According to the World Health Organization, problematic gaming behaviors must persist for more than 12 months to be classified as game addiction, but no game users showed this behavior pattern. In particular, the number of high school game users classified as game addiction in the first year of the survey decreased to 2 in the fourth year of the survey when they became adults, and in clinical practice, there were many cases where users changed from the risk group to the general user group within 2 to 3 years.
This means that problematic gaming behaviors are likely to be alleviated or disappear as people age and as they change through the life cycle and the process of growth and development. It also suggests that it may be a phenomenon that naturally disappears during the growth process even without special medical intervention.
◆ Close relationship between social and psychological factors and gaming behavior types
Game users who moved from the game risk group to another group showed a significant relationship with improved concentration. As the level of concentration of game users increased and the level of hyperactivity decreased, the probability of being included in the over-immersion risk group decreased. Through this, the result was derived that game use can help concentration.
In addition, the probability of being included in the preferred group increased as game users ▲played games with siblings or had many offline social relationships and ▲the level of satisfaction with the academic achievement of children and adolescents was high or increased compared to the previous year. This suggests the possibility of learning and forming behavioral patterns such as social norms related to games through offline social relationships.
More detailed research results on this study will be available on the KOCCA website (www.kocca.kr) on the 20th.
