Gaming Disorder among College Students and Correlation of Gaming with Self-esteem, Perceived Stress, and Sleep Quality

Context: The trend of participating in online games which used to be quite prevalent in children and adolescents is now being seen commonly in college students. Heavy usage of these online games leads to various dysfunctional symptoms and socio-occupational impairment. Aim: The aim of the study is to find the prevalence of Gaming Disorder in college students and its correlation with self-esteem, perceived stress, and sleep quality. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was performed on 347 college students; in age range of 18-25 years. After obtaining Ethics Committee Approval, the selected participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire. The students having positive online gaming behavior were further evaluated for gaming disorder, self-esteem, perceived stress, and sleep quality. Statistical Analysis Used: Descriptive statistics were used to find the prevalence and correlations were done using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The prevalence of online Gaming disorder was found to be 4.6% among the college students. An average of 2 h was spent on gaming per day with a positive, significant correlation with internet gaming disorder (IGD) score (r = 0.28, P = 0.00). Self-esteem was found to be weakly negatively correlated (r = -0.15, P = 0.02), perceived stress to be highly positively correlated (R = 0.87, P = 0.01), and poor sleep quality to be highly positively correlated (r = 0.92, P = 0.01) with IGD scale score. Conclusions: Online gaming behavior was found to be related to lower self-esteem and higher perceived stress and affecting sleep quality. Hence, we need to formulate preventive and treatment measures keeping these areas in mind.