Investigating problematic social media and game use in a nationally representative sample of adolescents and younger adults

Felix Reer, Ruth Festl and Thorsten Quandt

Behaviour and Information Technology, 2021, vol. 40, issue 8, 776-789

Abstract: Research on addictive media use has often concentrated on only one specific form of problematic usage behaviour, making it impossible to systematically examine how different types of disordered use are related to each other and whether they have similar or different correlational characteristics. The present study focused on the co-occurrence of problematic social media use and problematic digital game use. Both constructs were measured with adapted versions of an established screening instrument that was based on the DSM-5 criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder. Among a nationally representative sample of 1929 German Internet users (age: 14–39), we detected 1.9% disordered gamers and 2.6% disordered social media users. Co-occurrence rates and correlations between both types of problematic use were high. Future studies should investigate whether these connections are rather an expression of mutual direct interactions between both constructs or rather a reflection of shared antecedents. Using SEM, we moreover confirmed that both forms of problematic use were more pronounced among males and were also associated with lower levels of psychosocial well-being, especially depression and anxiety. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine whether problematic media use is rather the cause or consequence of psychosocial health impairments.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0144929X.2020.1724333 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tbitxx:v:40:y:2021:i:8:p:776-789

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/tbit20

DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2020.1724333

Access Statistics for this article

Behaviour and Information Technology is currently edited by Dr Panos P Markopoulos

More articles in Behaviour and Information Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().