Children and adolescent's self-reported gaming habits – An exploratory, cross-sectional study of gaming among 9–15-year-old school children

Background: Gaming is one of the most common leisure activities among children and adolescents: virtually every child in Sweden plays some form of internet games. However, concerns have been raised regarding the risk of developing psychiatric disorders such as internet gaming disorder. A significant amount of research has been focused on evaluating hours spent gaming and the negative effect the activity has on children's lives, but few studies have focused on children's self-evaluation of their gaming and their perception of good and bad gaming habits. Aims: The first aim of this exploratory study was to describe children's and adolescents’ self-evaluation of their gaming habits. Secondly, we investigated how children and adolescents perceive their parents’ involvement in gaming, and whether this has any effect on their own, self-reported gaming habits. Methods: Children and adolescents aged 9–15 (N = 541) attending public schools in Malmö, Sweden completed a digital survey. The data were collected between October 26 and December 3, 2021. Results: Two variables emerged as significant predictors of wanting help with reducing gaming: younger age and classification as an excessive gamer. Four variables emerged as significant predictors of wanting to game more: being a girl; being classified as an immediate gamer; having ever had arguments with their parents about gaming; and rating gaming as a highly valued activity. Conclusion: Our findings contribute to the understanding of what factors influence children's and adolescents’ desire to either increase their time spent gaming or their willingness to get help regarding gaming behaviors. Overall, our findings may be used to guide further, more in-depth research in this domain.