Publicação
From healthy play to gaming disorder: Psychological profiles from emotional regulation and motivational factors
| Resumo: | Background and Aims: The widespread popularity of video games eflects their appeal to meet fundamental needs. This study aims to investigate the psychological factors of gaming use, identifying profiles ranging from healthy to gaming disorder. Methods: In this ross-sectional study, 5,222 participants were surveyed. This ternational sample included adolescents and adults (16–69 years, M 5 25.6 years, SD 5 6.44), 48.66% men (n 5 2,541; M 5 26.4, SD 5 7.03), 42.32% women (n 5 2,210; M 5 25.1, SD 5 5.78), and 9.02% non-binary individuals (n 5 471; M 5 23.3, SD 5 5.23), spanning from casual gamers to esports rofessional players. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was employed to dentify distinct psychological profiles. The profile indicators included emotional regulation and motivations for playing video games. The profile correlates analysed included gaming disorder symptoms, time spent gaming and sociodemographics. Results: The LPA revealed four profiles labelled as avoidant (20.16%), engaged (38.95%), relational (26.01%), and dysregulated (15.78%). Results suggested that the dysregulated profile had the most emotional regulation difficulties, a low level of general motivation, and less interest in recreational aming, presenting the highest risk for gaming disorder. Discussion and Conclusions: This study’s findings present the first profiles incompassing key detailed psychological factors affecting gamers’ behaviour across all game genres, considering three genders. These profiles can aid researchers and clinicians in developing further research on targeted prevention and intervention programs tailored to each profile’s characteristics to promote healthy gaming habits and mitigate the risks and harm associated with gaming disorder. |
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| Autores principais: | Castro, Cátia Martins e |
| Outros Autores: | Neto, David Dias |
| Assunto: | Video games Profiles Gaming disorder Latent profile analysis Motivation Emotional regulation |
| Ano: | 2025 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Ispa-Instituto Universitário |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | Repositório do Ispa - Instituto Universitário |
| Resumo: | Background and Aims: The widespread popularity of video games eflects their appeal to meet fundamental needs. This study aims to investigate the psychological factors of gaming use, identifying profiles ranging from healthy to gaming disorder. Methods: In this ross-sectional study, 5,222 participants were surveyed. This ternational sample included adolescents and adults (16–69 years, M 5 25.6 years, SD 5 6.44), 48.66% men (n 5 2,541; M 5 26.4, SD 5 7.03), 42.32% women (n 5 2,210; M 5 25.1, SD 5 5.78), and 9.02% non-binary individuals (n 5 471; M 5 23.3, SD 5 5.23), spanning from casual gamers to esports rofessional players. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was employed to dentify distinct psychological profiles. The profile indicators included emotional regulation and motivations for playing video games. The profile correlates analysed included gaming disorder symptoms, time spent gaming and sociodemographics. Results: The LPA revealed four profiles labelled as avoidant (20.16%), engaged (38.95%), relational (26.01%), and dysregulated (15.78%). Results suggested that the dysregulated profile had the most emotional regulation difficulties, a low level of general motivation, and less interest in recreational aming, presenting the highest risk for gaming disorder. Discussion and Conclusions: This study’s findings present the first profiles incompassing key detailed psychological factors affecting gamers’ behaviour across all game genres, considering three genders. These profiles can aid researchers and clinicians in developing further research on targeted prevention and intervention programs tailored to each profile’s characteristics to promote healthy gaming habits and mitigate the risks and harm associated with gaming disorder. |
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