Reconsidering Internet Gaming Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The discourse surrounding the classification of gaming disorders has teemed with debate in recent years (American Psychiatric Association 2013b; Kuss et al. 2017; World Health Organization 2015). In 2013, a provisional diagnosis of Internet gaming disorder (IGD) was tentatively included in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) contingent on further evidence to warrant IGD’s existence as an independent disorder altogether (APA 2013b; WHO 2015). In spite of calls to delay the inclusion of a similar diagnosis in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases, the World Health Organization voted to formalize the diagnosis of gaming disorder in 2019 (van Rooij et al. 2018; WHO 2019). While debate over the validity of IGD and its diagnostic criteria continues, concurrent research on the demographic characteristics of gamers in the USA has found that 10% of gamers nationwide—over 18 years of age—identify as a sexual or gender minority (Nielsen Community 2020). Online gaming has greatly evolved in recent years (Johnson 2019). Contextualized by themonetization of certain gaming platforms, research has acknowledged the importance of gaming for ethnic and racial minority gamers as well as gamers living with chronic conditions and physical disabilities (Gray 2017; Johnson 2019; Leonard 2019). Besides gaming as a potential source of income, sexual and gender minority populations’ engagement with gaming is not new. In fact, the inclusion of queer characters and storylines in popular games as of late may signal an already extant subpopulation of gamers living with marginalized identities rather than a shift in the population (Parker 2016). Limited research has also indicated that gaming occupies a unique role among LGBTQ+ populations in respect to sexual and gender identity formation and expression. Role play games, for example, may provide sexual and gender minority gamers the freedom of gender expression otherwise not afforded to them in-person (Griffiths et al. 2016). Further research has also indicated that such forms of gaming may provide an entry point for gamers to safely explore their sexual identity in relative anonymity (Nielsen 2015). As such, the recently released data on LGBTQ+ gamers may serve to further justify future research on the psychosocial benefits of gaming for sexual and gender minority populations in the USA (Nielsen Community 2020). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic— caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2)—has seen a marked increase in the consumption of video game products across the USA possibly due to the enforcement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing and self-isolation guidelines (CDC 2020; The NPD Group 2020). Further, while sexual and gender minority populations in the USA regularly face unique stressors, such as a lack of social support or discrimination on the basis of sexual or gender identity, emerging research has also indicated that such populations are at unique risk of COVID-19 infection due to a confluence of factors (Meyer 2003; Phillips et al. 2020). These factors include a high likelihood to work in essential industries, inadequate health insurance coverage, job insecurity, and other variables, which increase this aforementioned risk of infection (Human Rights Campaign Foundation 2020). In fact, burgeoning research on sexual minority men in the USA found that over 19% of the study cohort reported job loss due to the pandemic alone, testifying to the socioeconomic vulnerability of such minority groups (Sanchez et al. 2020). While research has been limited, gaming may present as a common form of emotion-focused coping for sexual and gender minorities broadly (Kuo et al. 2016; Lazarus 2006; Meyer 2003). Further, gaming among LGBTQ+ populations may become increasingly popular as the pandemic persists—as recent research has shown (Fish et al. 2020). Considering this limited, but emerging data on LGBTQ+ gamers in the USA, * Daniel Sauermilch [email protected]