Problematic gaming habits, perceived stigma and help-seeking behavior among gamers

Exaggerated gaming is a rising issue both in Sweden and internationally that has a negative effect on many lives. It can be a cause of isolation which leads to various social consequences. It can cause economic problems due to large amounts of money being spent on games or in-game purchases or because of prioritizing gaming before going to work or studying. Excessive gaming has been categorized as a disorder/addiction since mid-2018 by the World Health Organisation based on reviews done on the available evidence and consensus among experts from different disciplines. However, there are not a lot of studies regarding the kind of help that is available as well as how likely those that have gaming disorder seek help nor are there many studies about stigma around the phenomenon. The aim of our study was to investigate if perceived stigma has any effect on whether or not and to what extent people who have problematic gaming habits decide to seek help as well as where they turn, should they have gaming disorder. We also want to see if problematic gaming habits increase the level of perceived stigma. Our hypotheses were therefore the following: H1: the more someone’s gaming habits are close to those of someone with a gaming disorder, the higher the perceived stigma becomes around the phenomenon. H2: the greater the perceived stigma is, the less likely a person is to seek help for their problem H3: the greater the perceived stigma, the less likely a person is to turn to professionals for help. We constructed a survey and distributed it on forums that discuss gaming related issues hoping to reach as many gamers as possible and we got a total of 177 responses. After having done the analysis in SPSS, our result showed that there was a weak positive correlation between problematic gaming habits and perceived stigma. We also found that the level of perceived stigma did not influence whether they would seek help or not. When it came to seeking help from professionals, we found st