Salud mental en una muestra argentina de gamers: ¿Juegan porque se sienten bien/mal? ¿Se sienten bien/mal porque juegan?

Mental health in an Argentine sample of gamers: Do they play because they feel good/bad? Do they feel good/bad because they play?

Abstract

There is still no consensus in the scientific community in the debate on the relationship between mental health and the use of video games. This study examined the association between mental health, in terms of well-being and psychological symptomatology, and video games use, in terms of hours of use and positive or negative experiences. The sample consisted of two groups of Argentine participants, one made up of 189 gamers (Mage = 30.1 years, SD = 9.46; 66.1% male) and a second group formed by 91 non-gamer participants (Mage = 33.4 years, SD = 11.1; 87.91% female). The results showed no linear or curvilinear relationship between mental health and the number of hours spent gaming, and no differences in the level of mental health between gamers and non-gamers. Associations were found between psychological symptomatology and negative gaming experiences, as well as between well-being and positive gaming experiences. The results would support the displacement, compensation, and bidirectional hypotheses. Mental health and gambling experiences do not appear to be independent phenomena. The moderated interaction hypothesis is proposed as a new hypothesis for future research.