Self-esteem is defined as positive and negative feelings about oneself, positive self-esteem is vital for mental and emotional health.¹ The simple act of playing video games can lower an individual's self-esteem.
“Male high school students who spend more time playing video games are also characterized by lower self-esteem in comparison with boys who spend less time playing video games.”²
Video games can act as a coping mechanism for those with already low self-esteem. This can lead to a vicious cycle where the coping mechanism for low self-esteem causes a lowering of self-esteem. “Self-esteem is an important predictor of problematic video gaming.”²
Video game addiction contributes to depression and anxiety
Rhiannon Williams - INews
News article about the study found at this link
The study took data from more than 130,000 gamers aged between 12 and 88 years old and the findings of 50 studies about video game addiction conducted over the past 11 years.
“Internet gaming disorder leads to significant impairment and distress.”
Video games have a link to negative social outcomes and poor psychological health such as:
Increased anxiety
Greater levels of depression
Lower academic achievement and conduct problems
High incidence of sleeping problems
Decreased offline social support
Reduced decision making ability
Greater attentional bias
Lower psychosocial well-being
Decreased happiness
Greater levels of loneliness
“Video games contribute to low self-esteem in players.”
Personal distress as a mediator between self-esteem, self-efficacy, loneliness and problematic video gaming in female and male emerging adult gamers²
Andrzej Cudo, Natalia Kopiś, Emilia Zabielska-Mendyk - Plos One
Those that have low self-esteem are more likely to engage in problematic video gaming, which, can lead to further decreased self-esteem.
“Male high school students who spend more time playing video games are also characterized by lower self-esteem in comparison with boys who spend less time playing video games.”
“Self-esteem is an important predictor of problematic video gaming.”
“Low self-esteem, associated with negative feelings about oneself, may lead to increased playing time.”
The Association Between Video Gaming and Psychological Functioning¹
Juliane M. von der Heiden, Beate Braun, Kai W. Müller, Boris Egloff
- Frontiers in Psychology
Video games are extremely popular with more than 2 billion users worldwide.
2,734 individuals participated in this survey.
“Playing video games excessively tends to be appealing to individuals with poor psychological functioning because games allow people to avoid their everyday problems and immerse themselves in another environment.”
“Lower self-esteem, lower life satisfaction, and, to a lesser extent, poorer perceived social support and lower self-efficacy went along with potentially problematic video game use.”
Longitudinal relations between gaming, physical activity, and athletic self-esteem
Beate W. Hygen, Jay Belsky, Frode Stenseng, Silje Steinsbekk, Lars Wichstrøm, Vera Skalicka - Computers in Human Behavior
This particular study examined the correlation between time spent gaming, physical activity and athletic self-esteem.
“In the United States, 91% of children and youth play digital games.”
“Athletic self-esteem is one of the domain-specific self-perceptions that seems to influence global self-esteem. Global self-esteem denotes the overall evaluation of oneself and reflects belief about how worthy one is.”
Individuals that think they have less athletic ability are prone to engage in physical activity less therefore becoming less athletic. The younger children start gaming the less time they have to spend being physically active which will ultimately lead to them having lower athletic self-esteem.