Longitudinal Network Associations Between Symptoms of Problematic Gaming and Generalized and Social Anxiety Among Adolescents.

Problematic gaming has emerged as a significant problem among adolescents today, yet there is still an ongoing debate over the validity and relevance of its diagnostic criteria. Some critical steps have been recommended, including examining the structure of problematic gaming and exploring its comorbidity with generalized and social anxiety. To address these research aims, this study used network analysis, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, to identify the most central symptoms of problematic gaming and elucidate the mechanisms underlying its co-occurrence with generalized and social anxiety in adolescents. A sample of 1893 Chinese adolescents (52.85% boys, 47.15% girls; M_age = 15.42 years, SD = 0.52) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study with a 12-month interval. The findings showed that giving up other activities, loss of control, tolerance, and continuation were the most central problematic gaming symptoms for both waves, as revealed by cross-sectional analyses. Moreover, the social anxiety symptom of social avoidance and distress-general was the most prominent in bridging different constructs across cross-sectional and longitudinal networks. The longitudinal findings further revealed that the generalized anxiety symptom of restlessness was closely connected to problematic gaming symptoms, indicating its influential role as a harmful mechanism underlying problematic gaming. Our results underscore the necessity to reconsider the criteria of problematic gaming. In addition, the symptoms of social avoidance and distress-general and restlessness can be prioritized as targets for preventing and treating problematic gaming in adolescents.