Ole Melkevik

Gaming Addiction, Gaming Engagement, and Psychological Health Complaints Among Norwegian Adolescents

Distinguishing high engagement with games from gaming addiction has been a challenge for researchers. We present evidence that an established self-report instrument can be used to distinguish addicted gamers from highly engaged gamers. The study used data from the World Health Organizations survey, Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children. A nationally representative sample of Norwegian eighth graders completed the Game Addiction Scale for Adolescents. Respondents who endorsed all four of the core criteria for addiction (relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems) were categorized as addicted gamers. Respondents who endorsed two or three of the core criteria were categorized as problem gamers. Those who endorsed all three peripheral criteria (salience, tolerance, and mood modification), but not more than one of the addiction criteria, were categorized as highly engaged gamers. Controlling for gender and physical exercise, gaming addicts and problem gamers had greater risk of feeling low, feeling irritable or in a bad mood, feeling nervous, feeling tired and exhausted, and feeling afraid. The highly engaged gamers did not have greater risk of psychological health complaints. This suggests that it is possible to distinguish addicted and problem gamers with psychological health complaints from adolescents who are merely highly engaged gamers.

Social background, bullying, and physical inactivity: National study of 11- to 15-year-olds

More children from lower social backgrounds are physically inactive than those from higher ones. We studied whether bullying was a mediating factor between lower social background and physical inactivity. We also examined the combined effect of low social class and exposure to bullying on physical inactivity. The Danish sample of the Health Behaviour in School‐aged Children (HBSC) study 2006 included 6269 schoolchildren in three age groups: 11‐, 13‐, and 15‐year‐olds from a random sample of 80 schools. The students answered the internationally standardized HBSC questionnaire. The applied definition leaves 4.0% in the category physically inactive. The sex and age‐adjusted OR (95% CI) for physical inactivity was 2.10 (1.39–3.18) among students with low social class and unclassifiable 3.53 (2.26–5.53). Exposure to bullying was associated with physical inactivity, sex and age‐adjusted OR = 2.39 (1.67–3.41). Exposure to bullying did not explain the association between social class and physical inactivity. The association between social class and physical inactivity was more pronounced among participants also exposed to bullying. In conclusion, there was a significantly increased odds ratio for physical inactivity among students from lower social classes and for students exposed to bullying. There was a combined effect of low social class and bullying on physical inactivity.

Psychometric properties of the five-item version of the Mindful Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS) in Norwegian adolescents:

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to examine the factor structure, model-based reliability, measurement invariance and concurrent validity of the five-item version of the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) in Norwegian adolescents. Methods: An initial pilot study was carried out using a sample of 77 fifteen year olds. For the main analyses, a sample of 2140 Norwegian adolescents was used who participated in the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study. All participants were asked to complete a questionnaire. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses found support for the one-factor structure of the five-item version of the MAAS. Acceptable model fit was found in both the pilot sample (χ2=6.48, df=5, p=0.26; root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA]=0.06; comparative fit index [CFI]=0.99; standardised root mean square residual [SRMR]=0.03) and the HBSC sample (χ2=27.1, df=4, p<0.001; RMSEA=0.05; CFI=0.99; SRMR=0.01). The model-based reliability of the scale was good (ω=0.84 and ω=0.81, respectively). Scalar measurement invariance was established for sex, age and material affluence. Finally, the five-item MAAS displayed concurrent validity through moderate negative associations with health complaints (r=−0.44; p<0.001) and school stress (b=−0.44, p<0.001), and a positive moderate correlation with life satisfaction (r=0.26; p<0.001). Conclusions: The five-item version of the MAAS is an adequate measure of mindfulness in Norwegian adolescents. Due to the brief nature of the scale, it can easily be included in epidemiological and clinical studies with an interest for trait mindfulness. The five-item MAAS may therefore have great potential to facilitate more knowledge about the role of mindfulness in adolescent health.

Are associations between electronic media use and BMI different across levels of physical activity

BackgroundThe use of electronic media has been found to be a risk factor for higher BMI and for being overweight. Physical activity has been found to be associated with lower BMI and lower risk for being overweight. Little is known about whether the associations between physical activity and electronic media use are additive or interactive in predicting BMI and risk for overweight among adolescents.MethodsThe data used in this study stem from the 2009/2010 survey of “Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study: A WHO Cross-National Survey. The sample consisted of 107184 13 and 15 year students from 30 different countries. Multilevel regression models were used to produce the presented estimates.ResultsOverall, 18% of boys and 11% of girls were classified as overweight. EM use was found to be associated with increased BMI z-scores and odds for overweight among both boys and girls who did not comply with physical activity guidelines. Among physically active adolescents, EM was found to be significantly associated with BMI or odds for overweight among girls, but not among boys.ConclusionWhile the usage of EM appear to be inconsequential for BMI and the risk of overweight among physically active boys, we find evidence indicating that EM use is associated with BMI and risk for overweight among girls, including those who report complying with MVPA guidelines.

Does workplace social capital protect against long-term sickness absence? Linking workplace aggregated social capital to sickness absence registry data:

Aims: Most previous prospective studies have examined workplace social capital as a resource of the individual. However, literature suggests that social capital is a collective good. In the present study we examined whether a high level of workplace aggregated social capital (WASC) predicts a decreased risk of individual-level long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in Danish private sector employees. Methods: A sample of 2043 employees (aged 18–64 years, 38.5% women) from 260 Danish private-sector companies filled in a questionnaire on workplace social capital and covariates. WASC was calculated by assigning the company-averaged social capital score to all employees of each company. We derived LTSA, defined as sickness absence of more than three weeks, from a national register. We examined if WASC predicted employee LTSA using multilevel survival analyses, while excluding participants with LTSA in the three months preceding baseline. Results: We found no statistically significant association in any of the analyses. The hazard ratio for LTSA in the fully adjusted model was 0.93 (95% CI 0.77–1.13) per one standard deviation increase in WASC. When using WASC as a categorical exposure we found a statistically non-significant tendency towards a decreased risk of LTSA in employees with medium WASC (fully adjusted model: HR 0.78 (95% CI 0.48–1.27)). Post hoc analyses with workplace social capital as a resource of the individual showed similar results. Conclusions: WASC did not predict LTSA in this sample of Danish private-sector employees.

Trends in social inequality in physical inactivity among Danish adolescents 1991–2014

The aim of this study was to investigate social inequality in physical inactivity among adolescents from 1991 to 2014 and to describe any changes in inequality during this period. The analyses were based on data from the Danish part of the HBSC study, which consists of seven comparable cross-sectional studies of nationally representative samples of 11–15-year old adolescents. The available data consisted of weekly time (hours) spent on vigorous physical activity and parental occupation from 30,974 participants. In summary, 8.0% of the adolescents reported to be physically inactive, i.e. spend zero hours of vigorous leisure time physical activity per week. The proportion of physically inactive adolescents was 5.4% in high social class and 7.8% and 10.8%, respectively, in middle and low social class. The absolute social inequality measured as prevalence difference between low and high social class did not change systematically across the observation period from 1991 to 2014. Compared to high social class, OR (95% CI) for physical inactivity was 1.48 (1.32–1.65) in middle social class and 2.18 (1.92–2.47) in lower social class. This relative social inequality was similar in the seven data collection waves (p=0.971). Although the gap in physical inactivity between social classes does not seem to be widening in Danish adolescents, there are still considerable differences in the activity levels between high, middle and low social class adolescents. Consequently, there is a need for a targeted physical activity intervention among adolescents from low (and middle) social class.

0257 Associations of individual level and job-group level estimates of psychosocial work factors with depressive symptoms

Background Job exposure matrix (JEM) methodology is useful in occupational psychosocial epidemiology for eliminating reporting bias and analysing low-prevalence outcomes in register based populations. This investigation aims to compare patterns of associations between psychosocial factors, assessed by JEM estimates and individual-level estimates, respectively, with depressive symptoms and to test the linearity of the associations. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis, we used data from the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study 2000 (n=8583) to generate JEM and individual-level estimates of quantitative demands, work pace, influence, opportunities for development, emotional demands, and role conflicts at work. JEM estimates were attained from regression models providing sex- and age specific estimates for each job-group. Depressive symptoms were measured with the MHI-5 scale of the Short Form 36 questionnaire. The shape of the association between psychosocial exposures and depressive symptoms were assessed by use of linear splines. Using F-tests we tested whether reducing model flexibility (i.e. number of splines) led to statistically significant changes in model fit. Results Preliminary results indicate that associations between individual-level estimates of psychosocial work factors with depressive symptoms were largely linear and statistically significant. The associations of JEM estimates of psychosocial job factors with depressive symptoms showed varied patterns of non-linearity and were generally not statistically significant, after adjustment for individual-level measures. Discussion Our study indicates that individual estimates of psychosocial work factors are consistently, strongly and linearly associated with depressive symptoms, whereas JEM estimates showed varied and non-linear patterns. JEM psychosocial work estimates may capture different phenomena than individual-level estimates.