Situating Problematic Video Gaming and Psychotic-Like Experiences in the Adolescent Landscape of Affordances: A Cohort Study

Background and aimsProblematic gaming has been linked to increased levels of psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in youth, but the role of environmental factors remains unclear. Using affordance theory, this study aimed to examine the association of problematic gaming with PLEs and the role of environmental factors. MethodsParticipants were 6492 youth (39.2% female) who reported playing video games, from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study in the U.S. Measures included problematic gaming, peer environment (number of close friends), school environment (teachers, activities, etc.), family environment (parental monitoring), and PLEs. We examined whether the peer, school, and family environments at age 12 were associated with problematic gaming and moderated its association with PLEs at age 13. ResultsHigher protective scores for the school and family environments at age 12 were independently associated with lower levels of problematic gaming at age 12 (respectively B=-0.15; 95% CI: -0.21, -0.10 and B=-2.39; 95% CI: -2.71, -2.07) and age 13 (B=-0.05; 95% CI: -0.10, -0.00 and B=-0.79; 95% CI: -1.11, -0.47). The peer environment was not associated with problematic gaming. Higher levels of problematic gaming at age 12 were associated with higher levels of PLEs at age 13 (B=0.13; 95% CI: 0.09, 0.17), with no significant interaction with the environmental variables. Discussion and conclusionsPositive school and family environments may be protective against problematic gaming in adolescence but do not appear to attenuate the putative effect of problematic gaming on PLEs. The results provide partial support to an affordance-based conceptualization of problematic gaming.