Parenting Emerging Adults Who Game Excessively: Parents' Lived Experiences

Abstract

Excessive gaming among emerging adults is a growing concern, especially in cases where it interferes with key developmental milestones such as gaining an education or establishing a career. Although researchers have begun to understand the effects of excessive gaming on young people themselves, we know remarkably little about how emerging adults' gaming may affect family relationships. Utilizing phenomenological interviewing of parents of emerging adult sons who game excessively, this study presents a rich description of the experience of parenting a young adult who games excessively. In-depth interviews were conducted with two fathers and two mothers. Findings suggested that parents felt their sons were missing out on aspects of their life due to their gaming and were not meeting their full potential. They also felt their sons were different from other people their age and found it difficult to talk to them about their gaming. Finally, they believed their sons were addicted to gaming.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to express our appreciation to Dr. Kathy Fitzgerald for providing guidance on bracketing and phenomenological interviewing; to Drs. Priscilla Blanton, Stergios Botzakis, and Mary Jane Moran for their many contributions to the Master's thesis on which this paper is based, and to members of UTK's Phenomenology Group for their assistance with data analysis and interpretation.