抄録
Addiction to video games is a serious issue to society, the gaming industry, and to the individuals dependent on video-game play. However, to what degree is an individual’s inherent proclivity to act, think, and feel certain ways (i.e., their personality) responsible for gaming addiction and detrimental correlates of gaming addiction (e.g., depression, work performance)? This meta-analytic study synthesizes the gaming addiction literature to determine the degree to which personality variables are related to gaming addiction and the degree to which gaming addiction relates to well-being and
performance outcome variables. This study then examines which variables are relatively more important in explaining variance in individual’s well-being and performance-related behaviors: personality, or gaming addiction. We find that Big Five and other personality traits are significantly related to gaming addiction. We also find that gaming addiction is significantly related to lower levels of mental health, while its relationship to school performance is equivocal. Finally, we find that personality is a relatively more important at explaining variance in these outcomes than gaming addiction is, thereby suggesting that video games to some degree might be a form of coping or “self-medication” for individuals who are already prone to mental health challenges to begin with.
