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Prevalence of Problematic Video Gaming among Ontario Adolescents

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Abstract

Video game playing has become a very popular activity among adolescents. Its impact on the mental health and well-being of players is just beginning to be explored. This paper reports on the prevalence of problematic gaming in a representative sample of 2,832 Ontario students in grades 7 to 12. The survey included questions about the school grade, family and school related problems, frequency of video game playing and video game related problems as measured by the Problem Video Game Playing scale (PVP). Most of the students (85 %) reported playing video games in the past year and 18.3 % reported playing video games daily. Slightly less then 1 in 10 of the students (9.4 %) endorsed 5 or more of the PVP items (males 15.1 %; females 3.1 %). Further research is required to delineate the concept of excessive video game playing, its relation to other addictions, and the impact on adolescents’ psychosocial functioning.

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Acknowledgements

Preparation of this work was funded in part by ongoing support from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. We would like to thank all the schools and students that participated in the study, and the Institute for Social Research at York University for assistance with the survey design and data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Nigel E. Turner, Angela Paglia-Boak, Bruce Ballon, Joyce T. W. Cheung, Edward M. Adlaf, Joanna Henderson, Vincy Chan, Jürgen Rehm, Hayley Hamilton & Robert E. Mann

  2. Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Nigel E. Turner, Edward M. Adlaf, Jürgen Rehm, Hayley Hamilton & Robert E. Mann

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Bruce Ballon & Joanna Henderson

  4. Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany

    Jürgen Rehm

  5. WHO Collaborating Centre, Zurich, Switzerland

    Jürgen Rehm

  6. Social, Prevention and Health Policy Research Department, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell St, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 2 S1

    Nigel E. Turner

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  1. Nigel E. Turner
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  2. Angela Paglia-Boak
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  3. Bruce Ballon
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  4. Joyce T. W. Cheung
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  5. Edward M. Adlaf
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  6. Joanna Henderson
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  7. Vincy Chan
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  8. Jürgen Rehm
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  9. Hayley Hamilton
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  10. Robert E. Mann
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Correspondence to Nigel E. Turner.

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Turner, N.E., Paglia-Boak, A., Ballon, B. et al. Prevalence of Problematic Video Gaming among Ontario Adolescents. Int J Ment Health Addiction 10, 877–889 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-012-9382-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-012-9382-5

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