Video gaming has become massively adopted over the last years and Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been noted as an increasing mental health problem. In this context, earlier studies focused on raw playtime (number of hours). Later studies also incorporated gaming motives while social contexts were not considered directly. Because social inclusion is one of the most powerful predictors of general mental health, in this study, we focused on the social context in which games are played. The sample consisted of 13,464 participants from 109 different countries, who played an average of ∼22 hours per week. Psychological well-being was assessed with the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 questionnaire, and the Social Phobia Inventory. We found that raw playtime is an uninformative predictor of a gamer's mental health and believe that earlier studies with smaller sample sizes may have overestimated its influence. Gaming motives (achievement and escapism, in particular) were generally found to be predictive. Of importance, the social context in which gamers play had large influence on their mental health and can potentially, in combination with the gaming motives, serve as a powerful predictor of clinically relevant at-risk groups in gaming.

中文翻译：

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社会背景和游戏动机比玩游戏更能预测心理健康：超过13,000名视频游戏玩家的探索性回归分析

在过去的几年中，视频游戏已被广泛采用，并且互联网游戏障碍（IGD）被认为是日益严重的心理健康问题。在这种情况下，较早的研究集中在原始播放时间（小时数）上。后来的研究还结合了游戏动机，而没有直接考虑社交环境。由于社会包容性是整体心理健康的最有力预测指标之一，因此在本研究中，我们重点研究了玩游戏的社会背景。样本包括来自109个不同国家的13464名参与者，他们平均每周玩22个小时。通过生活满意度量表，广泛性焦虑症7问卷和社交恐惧症量表评估心理幸福感。我们发现原始游戏时间是玩家信息的无用预测指标 的心理健康，并认为样本量较小的早期研究可能高估了其影响。通常发现，游戏动机（尤其是成就和逃避现实）是可以预测的。重要的是，玩家玩耍时所处的社交环境会对他们的心理健康产生很大影响，并且可能与游戏动机结合起来，成为游戏中临床相关风险人群的有力预测者。