ArticleFrontiers in psychology2026
Gambling-like gaming, offline leisure, and help-seeking in problematic gaming among Flemish adolescents: a three-wave longitudinal study.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Problematic gaming among adolescents has received growing attention, yet longitudinal evidence that can inform harm-reduction responses remains limited, particularly regarding gambling-like gaming features, offline leisure, and help-seeking. Methods: This study examined the prevalence, course, and prospective correlates of problematic gaming in a three-wave annual cohort of Flemish adolescent gamers. Secondary school students who reported gaming at least occasionally completed surveys at baseline (T1: Results: Problematic gaming was uncommon across waves (1.5-1.9%) and among adolescents who participated at all three waves, none met the cut-off at every assessment. After adjustment for baseline symptoms and sociodemographic covariates, greater engagement with gambling-like gaming features predicted higher problematic gaming symptoms over 1 year, but not over 2 years. Microtransaction engagement was positively correlated with problematic gaming but did not independently predict later symptom change. Neither extracurricular hobby participation nor perceived competence in extracurricular domains were associated with subsequent changes in problematic gaming symptoms. At T3, 53.4% of adolescents reported knowing where they could seek help for gaming-related problems, whereas only 3.5% reported having sought help, and baseline problematic gaming did not prospectively predict later help-seeking. Discussion: Overall, problematic gaming in this community sample was relatively uncommon and showed limited categorical stability over time. The findings identify gambling-like gaming features as a relevant prospective target for harm-reduction-oriented prevention, whereas the baseline offline leisure indicators did not prospectively predict symptom change. They also point to a gap between perceived access to support and actual help-seeking.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.