Symptoms of internet gaming disorder and depression in Chinese adolescents: A network analysis

The current study aimed to investigate comorbidity among symptoms of depression and internet gaming disorder (IGD) utilizing symptom network analysis in a sample of Chinese adolescents. A total of 1,362 Chinese adoles-cents (Mean age = 15.19 +/- 1.67; range 13-21; 39.79% female, 56.02% male, 4.19% not disclosed) were recruited from 11 local secondary schools between June and July 2020. Symptoms of depression and IGD were assessed by the 7-item DASS-21 depression subscale and the 9-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale. We con-ducted network analysis to estimate network models and the most central symptoms of depression and IGD and computed a combined network model of both depression and IGD symptoms to find bridge symptoms and illustrate the comorbidity between depression and IGD. We found that feeling 'Worthless', 'Meaningless', and 'Down-hearted' were identified as the most central symptoms of depression, whereas 'Preoccupation' and 'Toler-ance' were the two most central symptoms of IGD. The bridge symptoms in the combined network model were 'Gaming for escape or mood relief' from the IGD cluster and 'No initiative' and 'Down-hearted from the depression cluster. The current study was the first to investigate the relationship between depression and IGD symptoms among adolescents utilizing a symptom network perspective. Also, it highlighted key bridge symptoms in un-derstanding how IGD and depression contribute to each other.

Automated summary

This study investigated the comorbidity between symptoms of depression and internet gaming disorder (IGD) using symptom network analysis in Chinese adolescents. The most central symptoms of depression were found to be feeling 'Worthless', 'Meaningless', and 'Down-hearted', while 'Preoccupation' and 'Tolerance' were the two most central symptoms of IGD. Bridge symptoms in the combined network model included 'Gaming for escape or mood relief' from the IGD cluster and 'No initiative' and 'Down-hearted' from the depression cluster.