Cargando…

Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing

During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries implemented social distancing measures to contain virus transmission. However, these vital safety measures have the potential to impair mental health or wellbeing, for instance, from increased perceived loneliness. Playing social video games may offer...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Nebel, Steve, Ninaus, Manuel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8873111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35222171
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.683842
_version_ 1784657393042325504
author Nebel, Steve
Ninaus, Manuel
author_facet Nebel, Steve
Ninaus, Manuel
author_sort Nebel, Steve
collection PubMed
description During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries implemented social distancing measures to contain virus transmission. However, these vital safety measures have the potential to impair mental health or wellbeing, for instance, from increased perceived loneliness. Playing social video games may offer a way to continue to socialize while adhering to social distancing measures. To examine this issue further, the present online survey investigated social gaming during the pandemic and its association to perceived loneliness within a German-speaking sample. Results indicated a small positive correlation between general gaming frequency and perceived loneliness. Detailed analysis revealed a negative association between perceived loneliness and increased social forms of video gaming. Specifically, gamers with a higher social motive for gaming perceived less loneliness, but gamers with a dominant escape motive demonstrated a positive link to perceived loneliness. The use of social gaming in times of social distancing seems to play a small but significant factor in perceived loneliness compared to other demographical data. The findings are discussed with respect to methodological limitations, effect sizes, and sample characteristics. The results enrich the current knowledge on video gaming and its link to social wellbeing and provide a more nuanced picture than simplistic investigations of screen time.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8873111
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88731112022-02-26 Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing Nebel, Steve Ninaus, Manuel Front Psychol Psychology During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries implemented social distancing measures to contain virus transmission. However, these vital safety measures have the potential to impair mental health or wellbeing, for instance, from increased perceived loneliness. Playing social video games may offer a way to continue to socialize while adhering to social distancing measures. To examine this issue further, the present online survey investigated social gaming during the pandemic and its association to perceived loneliness within a German-speaking sample. Results indicated a small positive correlation between general gaming frequency and perceived loneliness. Detailed analysis revealed a negative association between perceived loneliness and increased social forms of video gaming. Specifically, gamers with a higher social motive for gaming perceived less loneliness, but gamers with a dominant escape motive demonstrated a positive link to perceived loneliness. The use of social gaming in times of social distancing seems to play a small but significant factor in perceived loneliness compared to other demographical data. The findings are discussed with respect to methodological limitations, effect sizes, and sample characteristics. The results enrich the current knowledge on video gaming and its link to social wellbeing and provide a more nuanced picture than simplistic investigations of screen time. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8873111/ /pubmed/35222171 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.683842 Text en Copyright © 2022 Nebel and Ninaus. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Nebel, Steve
Ninaus, Manuel
Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title_full Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title_fullStr Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title_full_unstemmed Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title_short Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing
title_sort does playing apart really bring us together? investigating the link between perceived loneliness and the use of video games during a period of social distancing
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8873111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35222171
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.683842
work_keys_str_mv AT nebelsteve doesplayingapartreallybringustogetherinvestigatingthelinkbetweenperceivedlonelinessandtheuseofvideogamesduringaperiodofsocialdistancing
AT ninausmanuel doesplayingapartreallybringustogetherinvestigatingthelinkbetweenperceivedlonelinessandtheuseofvideogamesduringaperiodofsocialdistancing