Highly Engaged Non-Disordered Gamers: Personality traits and Motivation in Adolescent Gaming

Abstract

Highly engaged gamers are rising within the Netherlands. This highlights the need to identify psychological mechanisms underlying a high gaming intensity among youth. This study examines whether social anxiety and impulsivity predict high gaming intensity, and whether gaming motives (social, coping and competition) mediate these relationships, accounting for possible confounding effects of gender and gaming disorder. Data from 1515 adolescents (48,8% male) with ages ranging from 10 to 20 (MAge = 13,55, SD = 1,36) were used from the Digital Youth and Identity Project. The results did not show direct effects of social anxiety or impulsivity in the relationship with gaming intensity. However, the mediation analyses revealed multiple significant indirect effects. The coping motive significantly mediated the relationship between social anxiety and gaming intensity. The competition motive significantly mediated the relationship between impulsivity and gaming intensity. These findings challenge existing literature focusing on gaming disorder, which has often found direct associations between these personality traits and gaming behaviour. Personality traits, in isolation, do not predict gaming intensity, but they do indirectly via gaming motives. These insights contribute to preventative efforts by identifying motives that occur prior to problematic patterns and may serve as intervention targets. Interventions focused on modifying maladaptive gaming motives, rather than gaming intensity, may be more effective in supporting healthy gaming habits among youth.