General Health and Psychological Well-Being in Esports Among Adolescents and Young Adult Esports Athletes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/jsspj.vol12.2.9.2023Keywords:
eSports, general health, psychological well-being, adolescent, young adultAbstract
Excessive play of eSports as a video game lead to excessive screen time that is linked to risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Due to various health risks associated with eSport players, it comes to our attention to investigate the current general health status of the eSports athletes. Having positive psychological well-being is very important to human beings as it composes self-acceptance, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life, autonomy and positive relations with others. Purpose of this study is to reveal how eSports affects adolescents and young adults' general health and psychological well-being. Subjects were high school and college students participated in eSports tournaments ranging from 14–26 years of age completed the general health status questionnaire (SF-1) and psychological well-being scale. The Mann-Whitney U Test used in this study to answer the research objective. Finding on general health status showed mean and standard deviation score for adolescents is (1.86 ± 0.85) and young adults (1.94 ± 0.92) and the mean score of overall health status between age groups is (1.89 ± 0.87). Mann-Whitney U Test showed the exact significance was not significant at the p-value 0.846. Psychological well-being score revealed adolescents had a higher (42.86 ±12.43) than young adults (42.25 ± 10.76) and the mean psychological well-being score between age groups is (42.59 ± 11.59). Mann-Whitney U Test showed the exact significance has no significant value (p-value 0.596) between the group. eSports did not significantly impact respondents' psychological well-being since the mean of the whole psychological well-being scale was 42.59, close to 56. Overall eSports did not influence adolescents and young adults' general health and psychological well-being. However, considering the emerging popularity of eSports and increasing digital platforms nowadays, undoubtedly bringing even more sedentary life. Future research should consider the amount of playing time (hours) per day among eSports professional players that have a special schedule of training in order to measure the effects of eSports participation on psychological well-being more precisely.
Downloads
References
Arnaez, J., Frey, G., Cothran, D., Lion, M., & Chomistek, A. (2018). Physical wellness among gaming adults: cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research serious games, 6(2), e9571.
Avery, J., Noack, H., Gill, T., Taylor, A., & Monitoring, S. A. (2006). Overall health status of South Australians as measured by the single item SF1 general health status question. South Australian Department of Health Population Research and Outcome Studies Unit, PO Box 287 Rundle Mall 5000. South Australia, Australia.
Barr, M., & Copeland-Stewart, A. (2021). Playing video games during the covid-19 pandemic and effects on players’ well-being. Games and Culture, 17(1), 155541202110170. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211017036
Bowling, A. (2005). Just one question: If one question works, why ask several? Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 59(5), 342-345.
Brady, A., & Grenville-Cleave, B. (2018). Positive Psychology in Sport and Physical Activity. Routledge.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 1). Physical Activity Recommendations By Age Group. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/age-chart.html
Cunningham, G. B., Fairley, S., Ferkins, L., Kerwin, S., Lock, D., Shaw, S., & Wicker, P. (2018). eSport: Construct specifications and implications for sport management. Sport management review, 21(1), 1-6.
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Biswas-Diener, R., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., & Oishi, S. (2009). New measures of well-being. Assessing Well-Being, 247–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2354-4_12
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D. W., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97(2), 143-156.
DiFrancisco-Donoghue, J., Balentine, J., Schmidt, G., & Zwibel, H. (2019). Managing the health of the eSport athlete: an integrated health management model. o British Journal of Sports Medicine Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 5(1), e000467. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2018-000467
García-Lanzo, S., & Chamarro, A. (2018). Basic psychological needs, passion and motivations in amateur and semi-professional eSports players. Aloma: revista de psicologia, ciències de l'educació i de l'esport Blanquerna, 36(2), 59-68.
Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. C. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66.
Greitemeyer, T. (2015). Everyday sadism predicts violent video game preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 19–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.10.049
Happonen, A., & Minashkina, D. (2019), Professionalism in Esport: Benefits in Skills and Health & Possible Downsides, LUT Scientific and Expertise Publications Raportit ja selvitykset – Reports 90, ISBN 978-952-335-374-9, p. 36.
Hernández-Jiménez, C., Sarabia, R., Paz-Zulueta, M., Paras-Bravo, P., Pellico, A., Ruiz Azcona, L. & Santibáñez, M. (2019). Impact of active video games on body mass index in children and adolescents: systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating the quality of primary studies. International Journal of Environmental Research And Public Health, 16(13), 2424.
Kocadağ, M. (2019). Investigating psychological well-being levels of teenagers interested in esport career. Research on Education and Psychology, 3(1), 1-10.
Kocadağ, M. (2020). An eSport research: psychological well-being differences of teenagers in terms of several variables. Psychology Research on Education and Social Sciences, 1(1), 31-39.
Lissak, G. (2018). Adverse physiological and psychological effects of screen time on children and adolescents: Literature review and case study. Environmental Research, 164(1), 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2018.01.015
Mihara, S., & Higuchi, S. (2017). Cross‐sectional and longitudinal epidemiological studies of Internet gaming disorder: A systematic review of the literature. Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 71(7), 425-444.
Newell, A. (2018). How much money does Faker make? We break it down. Dotesports. Com.
Nielsen, R. K. L., & Karhulahti, V. M. (2017, August). The problematic coexistence of" internet gaming disorder" and esports. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4).
Pine, R., Sutcliffe, K., McCallum, S., & Fleming, T. (2020). Young adolescents’ interest in a mental health casual video game. Digital Health, 6, 205520762094939. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207620949391
Ramírez-Granizo IA, Ubago-Jiménez JL, González-Valero G, Puertas-Molero P., & San Román-Mata S. The effect of physical activity and the use of active video games: exergames in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 14;17(12):4243. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17124243. PMID: 32545877; PMCID: PMC7344465.
Rudolf, K., Bickmann, P., Froböse, I., Tholl, C., Wechsler, K., & Grieben, C. (2020). Demographics and Health Behavior of Video Game and eSports Players in Germany: The eSports Study 2019. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6), 1870. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17061870
Sarda, E., Bègue, L., Bry, C., & Gentile, D. (2016). Internet Gaming Disorder and Well-Being: A Scale Validation. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 19(11), 674–679. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2016.0286
Segovia, J., Bartlett, R. F., & Edwards, A. C. (1989). An empirical analysis of the dimensions of health status measures. Social Science & Medicine, 29(6), 761-768.
Shum, H. L., Lee, C. H., & Cheung, J. C. S. (2021). Should eSports Be a Co-Curricular Activity in School. Children & Schools, 43(1), 61-63.
Von der Heiden, J. M., Braun, B., Müller, K. W., & Egloff, B. (2019). The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(1731). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01731
Ware Jr, J. E. (2000). SF-36 health survey update. Spine, 25(24), 3130-3139.
World Health Organization (2018). Physical activity. World Health Organization, Physical Activity. Available online at:
https://www.who.int/news-room/factsheets/detail/physical-activity.(accessed March 08, 2020).
Wright, C. J., Clark, G. I., Rock, A. J., & Coventry, W. L. (2017). Intolerance of uncertainty mediates the relationship between adult attachment and worry. Personality and Individual Differences, 112, 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.039
Yin, K., Zi, Y., Zhuang, W., Gao, Y., Tong, Y., Song, L., & Liu, Y. (2020). Linking eSports to health risks and benefits: Current knowledge and future research needs. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 9(6), 485-488.
Yusoff, N. H., & Mohd Yunus, Y. H. (2021). Male Dominant Sport: The Challenges of eSports Female Athletes. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 29(2). https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.2.35
Zhang, L., Luo, T., Hao, W., Cao, Y., Yuan, M., & Liao, Y. (2022). Gaming Disorder Symptom Questionnaire (GDSQ): The Development and Validation of a Screening Tool for ICD-11 Gaming Disorder in Adolescents. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 207.
Zwibel, H., DiFrancisco-Donoghue, J., DeFeo, A., & Yao, S. (2019). An osteopathic physician's approach to the eSports athlete. Journal of Osteopathic Medicine, 119(11), 756-762.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Nur Liyana Mohd Irwan, Nur Azida Durrani Mazahan, Nelfianty Mohd Rasyid, Ruaibah Yazani Tengah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
