The well-being of gamers, video game players, and non-players

ABSTRACT

The public, practitioners, and researchers often express concerns about the physical and behavioral well-being of people who play video games. Research generally fails to distinguish between people who play games and people who self-identify as gamers, so there is limited existing work on how gamer identity affects well-being. Using survey data from nearly 900 young adults collected in 2014 and 2015, this study compared people who do not play video games to self-identified gamers and other video game players on three measures of well-being: physical health, binge drinking, and aggressive behavior. Controlling for demographic factors and time spent gaming, gamers reported poorer physical health compared to non-players. Gamers were less likely to have engaged in binge drinking relative to non-players, an effect modified by self-esteem and social support. People who played games, but did not identify as gamers, did not differ from non-players on measures of well-being. There was no difference in aggressive behavior across player status. Hours played was not independently associated with measures of well-being. Supplementary analyses suggested a potential gendered relationship between player status and well-being. The study illustrated the theoretical and empirical relevance of respondent-selected gamer identity in contextualizing the purported relationship between video game play and well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Gamer
• video games
• well-being
• health
• binge drinking
• aggression

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Michael Killingsworth and J. Butler for their assistance on this project.

Notes

¹ Miguel Sicart (2013) “Game Educator’s Rant, Game Developers Conference” (as cited in Bergstrom et al., 2016).

² Nielsen uses the term “gamer” – in fact, “self-identified gamer” (p. 5) – but does not disclose the question(s) used to make that assessment. Given the high proportion, it seems likely that they asked about game playing not identity-as-gamer.

³ Pew Research Center asked of those who reported playing video games: “Some people use the term “gamer” to describe themselves as a fan of gaming or a frequent game-player. Do you think the term “gamer” describes you well, or not?”.

⁴ Compared to the university undergraduate population, women were over-represented in the sample (they make up about half the university population but two-thirds of the sample). The sample was, on average, about 1 year younger. The sample was similar in terms of racial composition.

⁵ Parallel models were also constructed in which gamers were the reference group and non-gamers and non-players were the categories. This allowed for comparisons between gamers and non-gamers. In only one model were non-gamers significantly different, noted below.

⁶ For parsimony, internet hours played was not retained in the final multivariate models. It had no significant effect in any preliminary model.

⁷ A previous study determined that self-identified gamers shared similar game play behaviors and attitudes regarding video games (Kort-Butler, 2020).

⁸ In base model for health in which gamers were the reference group and non-gamers and non-players were the categories, non-gamers were significant different from gamers (e.g., reported better health). This relationship was no longer statistically significant with self-esteem, self-control, and social support in the model. There were no differences between gamers and non-gamers for the other outcomes.

⁹ For each outcome, a total of 6 interaction terms were tested, creating on overall total of 18 interaction terms tested. With only 2 of these 18 achieving statistical significance, there was not particularly strong evidence for a robust moderating effect of personal resources and social support.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by the Office for Research and Economic Development, University of Nebraska - Lincoln.