Short Research Report: Does Playing Apart Really Bring us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Nebel, Steve; Ninaus, Manuel

doi:10.31234/osf.io/zxhw3

Cited by 9 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Video games as coping tools during challenge life circumstances is well documented ( Caro & Popovac, 2021 ; Iacovides & Mekler, 2019 ). Individuals have used video games to cope with pandemic-related stress ( Cahill, 2021 ; Eden, Johnson, Reinecke, & Grady, 2020 ; Kleinman, Chojnacki, Seif El-Nasr, & El-Nasr, 2021 ; Nabi, Wolfers, Walter, & Qi, 2021 ; Nebel & Ninaus, 2020 ), including AC:NH ( Barr & Copeland-Stewart, 2021 ). Moreover, video games ( Barr & Copeland-Stewart, 2021 ) including AC:NH ( Johannes, Vuorre, & Przybylski, 2021 ) tied to well-being during the pandemic.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A relationship between family video game play and family connectedness exists ( Balmford & Davies, 2020 ; Wang, Taylor, & Sun, 2018 ). The sociability affordance of video games is well documented, including for coping ( Collins & Cox, 2014 ), especially during difficult life situations ( Caro & Popovac, 2021 ; Iacovides & Mekler, 2019 ), including the pandemic ( Cmentowski & Krüger, 2020 ; Marston & Kowert, 2020 ; Nebel & Ninaus, 2020 ), with AC:NH ( Kleinman et al, 2021 ; Ng, 2021 ). One study found an association between social actions in AC:NH and decreased levels of loneliness ( Lewis, Trojovsky, & Jameson, 2021 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Families Playing Animal Crossing Together: Coping With Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic was stressful for everyone, particularly for families who had to supervise and support children, facilitate remote schooling, and manage work and home life. We consider how families coped with pandemic-related stress using the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Combining a family coping framework with theorizing about media as a coping tool, this interview study of 27 families (33 parents and 37 children) found that parents and children individual coped with pandemic-related stress with media. Parents engaged in protective buffering of their children with media, taking on individual responsibility to cope with a collective problem. Families engaged in communal coping, whereby media helped the family cope with a collective problem, taking on shared ownership and responsibility. We provide evidence for video games as coping tools, but with the novel consideration of family coping with media.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Families Playing Animal Crossing Together: Coping With Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…Indeed, individuals increased their use of mediated communication during the pandemic, which was beneficial for well-being (Brown & Greenfield, 2021; Gabbiadini et al, 2020). This included video games, which is not surprising, as the sociability affordance of video games is well documented (Jiow et al, 2017), even during the COVID-19 pandemic (Cmentowski & Krüger, 2020; Nebel & Ninaus, 2020), particularly with AC:NH (Comerford, 2021; Kleinman et al, 2021; Ng, 2021). We also note that other work has found that social aspects of video game play can enhance video game-related coping and recovery (Collins & Cox, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“I need to just have a couple of White claws and play animal crossing tonight”: Parents coping with video games during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pearce¹,

Yip²,

Lee³

et al. 2022

Psychology of Popular Media

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The COVID-19 pandemic was an incredibly stressful time for parents of school-age children. Supervising remote schooling while also balancing work and life demands, in addition to health concerns, demanded much from parents. This study considers how parents used the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons to cope with pandemic-related stress. Using Reinecke and Rieger's (2021) recovery and resilience in entertaining media use model as a theoretical framework, this interview study of 33 parents from 27 families found that parents psychologically detached from their pandemic-stress laden worlds with the game, used the game to relax, found a sense of accomplishment through achieving goals via mastery experiences in the game, and appreciated the sense of control that the game afforded. An emergent code was found in that the game facilitated much-needed social connections for parents, which was part of their pandemic-stress coping. This study provides further evidence for video games as coping tools, with a specific focus on parental pandemic stress. Public Policy Relevance StatementThis interview study looks at how parents used the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizon to cope with COVID-19 pandemic-related stress. Parents used the game to detach, relax, find a sense of accomplishment and control as well as facilitate social connections.

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“…The analysis was conducted using SPSS Statistics (IBM, 2020), R (R Core Team, 2020), and the R packages psych (Revelle, 2020), ggplot2 (Wickham, 2016), and GGally (Schloerke et al, 2020). The dataset and analysis code are publicly available (Nebel and Ninaus, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, in contrast to broad descriptions of "screen time" or gaming, the current study aimed at providing a differential perspective by not only investigating different modes of gaming (i.e., single-player vs. multiplayer) but also different motives for gaming. In response to recent calls for transparency in the social sciences (e.g., Vazire, 2017) and gaming research (Vornhagen et al, 2020), we strived for a transparent workflow and made our data and analysis code openly (Nebel and Ninaus, 2020) available so that others can easily build upon our research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing

Nebel

Ninaus

2022

Front. Psychol.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries implemented social distancing measures to contain virus transmission. However, these vital safety measures have the potential to impair mental health or wellbeing, for instance, from increased perceived loneliness. Playing social video games may offer a way to continue to socialize while adhering to social distancing measures. To examine this issue further, the present online survey investigated social gaming during the pandemic and its association to perceived loneliness within a German-speaking sample. Results indicated a small positive correlation between general gaming frequency and perceived loneliness. Detailed analysis revealed a negative association between perceived loneliness and increased social forms of video gaming. Specifically, gamers with a higher social motive for gaming perceived less loneliness, but gamers with a dominant escape motive demonstrated a positive link to perceived loneliness. The use of social gaming in times of social distancing seems to play a small but significant factor in perceived loneliness compared to other demographical data. The findings are discussed with respect to methodological limitations, effect sizes, and sample characteristics. The results enrich the current knowledge on video gaming and its link to social wellbeing and provide a more nuanced picture than simplistic investigations of screen time.

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Short Research Report: Does Playing Apart Really Bring us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Cited by 9 publications

References 16 publications

Families Playing Animal Crossing Together: Coping With Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Families Playing Animal Crossing Together: Coping With Video Games During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“I need to just have a couple of White claws and play animal crossing tonight”: Parents coping with video games during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Does Playing Apart Really Bring Us Together? Investigating the Link Between Perceived Loneliness and the Use of Video Games During a Period of Social Distancing

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