ArticleJournal of behavioral addictions2023
A cross-national comparison of problematic gaming behavior and well-being in adolescents.
Article in Journal of behavioral addictions, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- A narrative review of school-based preventive interventions on mental disorders and addictions.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Adolescents' Perspectives on Self-Regulation and Need for Change in Digital Media Use: A Focus Group Study.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
- Problematic gaming, problematic social media use, and psychological well-being in adolescents: exploring networks of symptoms in 10 European countries.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Genre-Specific Gaming Addiction and Flourishing in Adolescents: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Difficulties in Emotion Regulation as a Mediator and Gender as a Moderator in the Relationship Between Problematic Digital Gaming and Life Satisfaction Among Adolescents.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Burden of gaming disorder among adolescents: A systemic review and meta-analysis.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2025Review
- A Comparison of Gaming Behavior between Teens and Preteens and its Association with Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Academic Performance in Children.Clinical practice and epidemiology in mental health : CP & EMH · 2025Article
- Moderation of sex in the Association between School Bullying Behaviors and problematic gaming among Chinese adolescents: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
aimsThe popularity of playing games among adolescents has increased during the last decades, possibly affecting the prevalence of problematic gaming behavior. The current study aimed to compare country-level prevalence rates of adolescents' problematic gaming behavior in five countries and identify cross-cultural similarities and differences in the relationship between problematic gaming and well-being (life satisfaction, psychological complaints, and peer support).
methodsCross-national data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study were used. The sample comprised 14,398 gamers (61% boys) aged 11 to 16 (average age between 13.31 and 13.85) from Azerbaijan, England, Serbia, Slovenia, and the Netherlands.
resultsThe findings showed that the prevalence of problematic gaming differs between countries. The highest prevalence of problematic gaming was seen in Azerbaijan (16.1%) and the lowest in the Netherlands (4.3%). In contrast, Azerbaijan reported the lowest gaming intensity, whereas the Netherlands and England showed the highest gaming intensity. Additional analyses revealed that problematic gaming was associated with lower life satisfaction, more psychological complaints, and lower peer support in all countries, although the strength of these associations varied between countries. DISCUSSION AND
conclusionsThe current study's results are consistent with the assumption that problematic gaming negatively affects adolescents' social and mental well-being. These findings are further discussed in light of the normalization theory which suggests that cultural gaming norms (i.e., the percentage of gamers per country) would influence the strength of the relationship between problematic gaming and adolescents' well-being. The present findings highlight the need for adequate prevention strategies aiming at problematic gaming among youngsters.
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