BENGALURU: A recent research study by the NIMHANS showed findings that support the view that online gaming is an “escapist coping strategy” in dealing with difficult life situations. The paper has been accepted for publication by a prominent peer-reviewed journal.
“The nature of online gaming has led to substitution of real life with the virtual environment provided by the game, leading to addictive symptoms such as Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD),” Dr Manoj Sharma, Professor & Coordinator, Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT), Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS and the author of the research paper, told TNIE.
Online gaming is frequently used as a “coping mechanism, an avoidant, escapist strategy, which can lead to problematic or excessive gaming, with harmful outcomes and poor mental health. The players cope with their bereavement during the gameplay by shifting between stressors that relate to their loss and restoration surrounding the bereavement. Research has also found that regardless of the difficult life situation, gaming as a coping mechanism with escapist motives differs based on the types of games,” he said.
Giving an example, the clinical psychologist said that during the research, they found a 17-year-old boy, who had just lost his father to a medical condition engaged in online gaming even as his father’s final rituals were being conducted.
“Theirs is a single-child family and his father used to buy him the latest gadgets and devices. His mother was strict and deeply hurt at her son’s ‘insensitivity’. When we asked the teen, he told us that gaming was his way to distract himself from his loss,” said Sharma.
‘ A sign of resignation, self-inflicted isolation’
The NIMHANS study has demonstrated that distraction from difficulties, connection with the characters and players, lack of purpose, poor emotional regulation and self-efficacy serve as motives to engage in online gaming during tough situations. The researchers found that higher gaming addiction showed social avoidance, resignation and self-inflicted isolation like Hikkokomori (a form of extreme social withdrawal in Japanese culture where adolescents and young adults restrict themselves to their parents’ home).
“The escapism found among Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) players mediates the perception of the gaming environment as reality, and thus avoiding real world and its difficulties through play. It is also observed that MMORPG players experienced more problematic gaming compared to non-MMORPG players,” said the psychologist.
MMORPGs are associated with player inter-connectedness and group dynamics within the larger virtual community, which could decide whether these interpersonal connections create greater distress, especially when longer duration of gameplay is seen. “A cohesive knowledge of these coping mechanisms could help researchers and clinicians reduce the incidence rates of IGDs, identify factors that are detrimental to wellbeing, and promote healthy use of gaming through alternative adaptive coping strategies.
Moreover, knowledge of escapist coping and associated consequences such as social isolation, emotional dysregulation and maladaptive personality traits could help in developing appropriate context sensitive assessments to measure the entire gamut of coping behaviour. This would further aid in devising intervention strategies that address game-related negative consequences,” said Sharma.