Loneliness and gaming behaviours among children and adolescents during COVID-19: gender and age differences

• In Event: Vulnerable Children and Families in COVID-19: Risks and Resilience

Abstract

Background. The social distancing policy under the COVID‑19 pandemic and the school suspension make children and adolescents particularly vulnerable to loneliness and gaming behaviours. Both loneliness and gaming disorders among children and adolescents are public health concerns. However, the possible association between these two risks, especially under the pandemic, is not well understood.

Objective. The current study is to examine the co-occurrence of loneliness and gaming behaviours among children and adolescents. The study also further examined the association of family factors and psychological distress, and sex differences.

Method. Participants are 2,863 children and adolescents (mean age = 12.60 years, SD = 1.32) in primary (grade 4-6) and secondary (grade 7-8) schools (female: 52.5%). The data collection was conducted in June 2020 in a brief school reopening period between the 2nd wave and the 3rd wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. All participants with parental consent finished the paper-and-pencil questionnaire in the classrooms with research assistants’ instruction. Measures included the Gaming Addiction Scale, the perceived parental support and supervision scale, the loneliness measure, the Patient Health Questionnaire, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and the socio-demographic characteristics and socio-economic status items.

Results. It has been estimated that 87.9% students play video games during the pandemic, among them the prevalence for leisure gamine, excessive gaming and pathological gaming were 61.8%, 20.9%, and 5.3%. Significant sex difference (Chi-square = 103.07, p < .001) shows that boys are more likely to get addicted to games. The present student found similar results as previous studies that feeling more loneliness (Haagsma et al., 2012), more serious depression (Pontes and Griffiths, 2016), and increased anxiety (Peng and Liu, 2020) will lead to more gaming behaviors. If the student feel loneliness as well as depressed, he or she will loss the motivation of gaming on the contrary, the ORs of Loneliness change from 1.15 (95% CI, 1.11-1.19, p < .001) to 0.91 (95% CI, 0.87-0.95, p <.001) for excessive gaming, from 1.35 (95% CI, 1.28-1.43, p < .001) to 0.89 (95% CI, 0.82-0.96, p < .01) for pathological gaming. The multinomial logistic regressions indicate that age, is a risk factor for excessive gaming. Being younger was more likely to have excessive gaming. Participants in single-parent family is a risk factor for both excessive gaming and pathological gaming; father having no job is also a risk factor. And better socioeconomic status, parental support and supervision are protective factors for gaming addictions.

Conclusion. Loneliness was associated with gaming addiction and the finding of this study suggested that the association was similar between boys and girls, and between primary and secondary school students. The study identified potential risk factors and protective factors for prevention and early intervention.

Authors

• Shimin Zhu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yanqiong Zhuang, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  Presenting Author

• Paul Lee, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul Wai-Ching Wong, The University of Hong Kong
  Non-Presenting Author