TO: Professor Ellis
FROM: Stephan Dominique
DATE: 10/19/2020
SUBJECT: 500-Word Reverse Outline on Internet Gaming Disorder
My 500-word summary is based on the article “ Prevalence of internet gaming disorder in adolescents: A meta‐analysis across three decades” by Fam, J. Y. Internet gaming disorder has been looked into seriously after the multiple cases of violence due to the prevalence of video games with a famous case being the Colorado movie massacre of 2012. Internet gaming disorder must have more research done on it before it can become an official disorder with multiple different criteria. There are disputes of if the word “internet” should even be in the term “Internet Gaming Disorder” as there has been studies that people aren’t addicted to the internet itself but are using it as a platform to fuel their addiction. There are also issues with the methods to determine IGD as it has been disputed that the disorder is more comparable to gambling but that isn’t true due to money not being needed to play. IGD has been studied among different age groups with it being most prevalent in the adolescent age group, having various benefits but also various disadvantages. IGD has to be synthesized among adolescents. There was a search for articles published on IGD with 458 publications being founded but only a total of 16 articles were used due to them meeting the criteria. There were subgroup analyses performed to identify the influences of IGD such as year, recorded disorder, study location, etc. The prevalence of IGD has been recorded since the 1990s and low prevalence was found in most cases while there are barely any high prevalence cases. Studies were done on both genders and Internet Gaming Disorder was found to be a good higher in males than in females. Prevalence of IGD decreased as the years went on but was still very high in certain locations such as Asia and North America. The results of the studies of IGD determined that the disorder was more prevalent in adolescents than children with theories of IGD starting in children and becoming more rampant when they become adults and become unaware of the risks associated with it. According to Fam, “results show that male adolescents (7.1%) are about four times more likely to engage in IGD than female adolescents (1.7%)” (Fam, 2018). Males are also more likely to be unable to resist playing the games. Male gamers are more likely to engage in challenging video games that include strategy, fighting, etc. compared to female gamers tend to play more casual games. There are less people in the world that suffer from IGD than normal gaming disorder. Numbers for IGD are inflating in Asia and it’s not a surprise as major game developers are based in Asia. One in twenty adolescents are affected by IGD and this disorder requires a lot more research.
References
Fam, J. Y. (2018). Prevalence of internet gaming disorder in adolescents: A meta‐analysis across three decades. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 59(5), 524–531. https://doi-org.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/10.1111/sjop.12459
