Emotional Stability Buffers the Link between Habitual Gaming and Negative Psychological Outcomes

This study aims to assess whether frequent computer and video gaming necessarily leads to negative psychological outcomes, or if some people are at higher risk than others. Analysing a national probability adult sample (N=21,120), this study found that habitual gamers ([greater than or equal to]5.0 hours/week) experienced increased psychological distress, reduced self-esteem, and poorer body satisfaction than non-gamers and casual gamers (.1-5.0 hours/week). Critically, consistent with general personality-diathesis models, habitual gaming was more strongly linked with psychological distress and self-esteem among gamers with low Emotional Stability. Personality did not moderate the link between gaming and body satisfaction. These findings document a classic personality x situation interaction in a large-scale national probability sample and identify a personality characteristic that predicts who may be at greater risk of negative outcomes linked with habitual gaming. Keywords: Emotional Stability; Habitual Gaming; Psychological Outcomes
Introduction Psychological research has established that video gaming is linked with both positive (Brand & Todhunter, 2017; Przybylski, Ryan, & Rigby, 2009; Russoniello, O'Brien, & Parks, 2009; Snodgrass, Lacy, Dengah, [...]