The Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Problem Gaming Among Adolescents: A Nationally Representative Survey Study

ConclusionThe results of the present study draw attention to ER, namely, habitual ER strategies used in times of stress in online problem gaming. It appears to be important given that ER can be targeted and improved during development, and can even be altered in adulthood via different interventions and psychotherapies. Our findings entail important implications for mental health prevention. Prevention programs that promote positive reappraisal and help to understand negative consequences of frequent use of maladaptive ER strategies such as rumination or catastrophizing could be useful in developing healthier ways of handling everyday negative emotions in adolescence. It is also worth noting that negative emotions are frequently elicited by recalling personally relevant negative events that happened in the past or in the near past. Cognitive and emotional responses to these thoughts will influence the intensity and duration of negative affect. Thus, prevention efforts that focus on adaptive ways of elaborating (processing) negative events can prevent unproductive rumination and the development of psychopathologies, including IGD as well.At the same time, the relationship between online gaming and ER can be thought of the other way around. Recently, in their systematic review of videogames for ER, Villani et al. (124) came to the conclusion that (specific types of) videogames may be promising tools for improving the ER skills of gamers. Taking this a step further, Dore et al. ...
Source: Frontiers in Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research