Vanzoelen, Deborah, and Caltabiano, Marie L. (2016) The role of social anxiety, the behavioural inhibition system and depression in online gaining addiction in adults. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 8 (3). pp. 231-245.

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Abstract

This study explored whether adults, who have symptoms of social anxiety or depression, or a temperamental tendency towards having a high behavioural inhibition system, will be more prone to developing online gaming addiction. Data were collected over a 2-month period with a total of 186 participants completing all the online questionnaires (147 university students and 39 “Second Life” (SL) users) of which 66 were male (M=34.6, SD = 14.15) and 120 were female (M= 33.32, SD = 12.8). Results of a hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis indicated that combined, social anxiety, a high behavioural inhibition system and depression explained a small amount of variability (9.9%) in gaming addiction, with social anxiety explaining the most variance in the model. Any effect of the behavioural inhibition system was mainly thorough its impact on social anxiety. Young adult (26-40 years) and middle adult (41-60 years) females represented a higher proportion of problematic gamers in this sample than males. Further research is required into risk factors for addictive gaming particularly in adult female players.

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