Network Analysis of Additional Clinical Features of (Internet) Gaming Disorder

Abstract

There are dozens of screening instruments purporting to measure the (internet) gaming disorder. The two prominent diagnostic manuals, DSM-5 and ICD-11, list several additional diagnostic or clinical features and problems (e.g., neglect of sleep, neglect of daily duties, health deterioration) that should co-occur or be caused by the IGD/GD. It remains unclear how specific IGD/GD operationalizations (different screening scales) are related to these functional impairments. To explore this, data on six measures of gaming disorder (IGDS9-SF, GDSS, GDT, GAMES test, two self-assessments) and 18 additional diagnostic features were collected from a sample of 1,009 players who play digital games at least 13 hours per week. A network approach was utilized to determine which operationalization is most strongly associated with functional impairment. In most of the networks, gaming disorder consistently emerged as the most central node. The similar centrality of gaming disorder, irrespective of its definition (ICD-11 or DSM-5) or operationalization, provides support for the valid comparison or synthesis of results from studies that used instruments coming from both ICD-11 and DSM-5 ontologies, but only if the goal is to evaluate IGD/GD relationships to other phenomena, not the relationships between the symptoms themselves.