Stockdale and Coyne (2018) Video Game addiction

Stockdale, L., & Coyne, S. M. (2018). Video game addiction in emerging adulthood: Cross-sectional evidence of pathology in video game addicts as compared to matched healthy controls. Journal of Affective Disorders, 225, 265–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2017.08.045 

Video games have become a part of Western culture, and for most gamers it is a harmless way to relieve stress, however, for some game players video games have become a dangerous activity (Stockdale & Coyne, 2018). ‘Video game use becomes pathological when … strong attachment damages multiple levels of functioning such as family life, social functioning, school or work performance, or psychological functioning” (Stockdale & Coyne, 2018, p.265). Their article was aimed towards Internet Gaming Disorder and its effect on individuals.  

Like other articles, there was no mentioned audience, but is likely aimed towards psychologists due to the journal it is published in.  

Purpose	To determine if people with IGD had lower social, emotional, and physical mental health than those without the addiction as well as the comorbidity between video game addiction and other addictive behaviours.
Methodology	1205 young adults who reported playing video games from universities in the United States. 87 met the criteria for video game addiction            Recruited students from introductory psychology courses. Completed an online survey            Video game addiction was measured through Internet Gaming Disorder Scale. 9 questions based on the criteria for the DSM-V were yes or no questions, if students answered 5 or more yes, were classified as addicts, people with less than two were used as controls. Various scales used to measure Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity, cognitive function, mental health, physical health, somatic disturbance, Body Mass Index, anxiety, depression, positive affect and wellbeing, pornography use, and gambling.
Results	VGA displayed lower cognitive functioning and mental health compared to non-addicts. Female addicts were more at risk for physical health outcomes and sleep disturbances. Problematic pornography use was higher in addicts to non-addicts.
Conclusion	VGA had increased ADHD symptoms, poorer cognitive functioning, and poorer mental health.

    Kovess-Mafesty et al. (2016) found 20% of students played video games more than 5 hours a week, time spent playing video games was related to a variety of factors including being a boy, being older and belonging to a medium size family. A high usage of video games related to decreases peer relationship problems and prosocial deficits. Unlike Stockdale & Coyne (2018), they found that video games may have a positive effect on young students, suggesting more research is needed in the subject.     Stockdale and Coyne (2018) suggest that video game addicts experienced poorer overall health and were more likely to report problematic pornography use. This suggests that video games have a negative effect on student’s health and wellbeing, but more research is needed.