Abstract
With the recent edition of Gaming Disorder to the ICD-11, it is imperative for clinicians to explore avenues to treat individuals who may seek treatment for videogame-related difficulties. An important factor in treating addictive behavior disorders is to select adaptive, appropriate replacement behaviors. Thus, this study explored typical non-gaming-related activities enjoyed by gamers as predicted by their gaming interests, with a goal of predicting targeted replacement behaviors based on gamer motivations. Online data were collected for 216 participants. Each participant completed a Gamer Motivation Profile and a General Interests Profile, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the degree to which gaming motivations also predicted interest in other, non-gaming-related activities. A number of significant, meaningful results emerged, both in positive and negative directions. For example, socially motivated gamers tended to also enjoy social activities outside of gaming, while showing decreased interest in creative activities. Similarly, immersion-oriented gamers tended to have higher interest in Intellectual activities, with decreased interest in Social activities and in Vacationing. Preliminary results revealed insights that can be used by clinicians in making targeted recommendations of replacement behaviors for problematic gamers, based on their specific Gamer Motivation Profiles.
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Notes
Gender was dummy coded in this case as “Female = 1” and “Not Female = 0.” However, because gender is a dichotomous, nominal variable, the values of the standardized betas for gender should not be interpreted in the same manner as they are for continuous variables.
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The study described in this manuscript adheres to all ethical standards within the Ethics Code of the American Psychological Association. Research oversight was provided by the East Tennessee State University Institutional Review Board. A waiver of informed consent was granted by the IRB, due to the online nature of this study. Nonetheless, an informed consent page was still included in the online software used to collect data, and participants were able to electronically indicate consent prior to participating in the study.
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Steadman, J.L. Gaming Motivations as a Guide to Treating Problematic Gaming Behaviors. J. technol. behav. sci. 4, 332–339 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00103-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00103-z