The Role of Mindfulness, Mind Wandering, Attentional Control, and Maladaptive Personality Traits in Problematic Gaming Behavior

Chiorri, Carlo; Soraci, Paolo; Ferrari, Ambra · 2023 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1007/s12671-022-02066-4

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Summary

This study investigates the complex network of associations between problematic gaming behavior and psychological constructs, specifically dispositional mindfulness, mind wandering, attentional control, and maladaptive personality traits. While previous research has linked these factors to gaming disorder individually, they had never been integrated into a single predictive model. The authors aimed to clarify the direct and indirect predictors of problematic gaming and identify potential causal relationships, addressing limitations in prior studies that treated mindfulness and mind wandering as unitary constructs or relied on statistical methods unable to handle multicollinearity and predictive mediation. The researchers conducted an online survey with 506 adult gamers recruited from the Italian general population. Participants completed a background questionnaire and standardized measures, including the Italian Gaming Disorder Test (I-GDT), the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-15, scales for spontaneous and deliberate mind wandering, attention control scales, and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Brief Form. To analyze the data, the study employed Gaussian graphical models (GGMs) to map the network of partial correlations among variables and Bayesian networks (BNs) to determine the direction and magnitude of causal effects, thereby overcoming the interpretive limitations of traditional multiple regression models. The results from the Gaussian graphical models indicated that problematic gaming was directly associated with low scores on the "Acting with Awareness" facet of mindfulness, high levels of Disinhibition and Psychoticism, playing more than 30 hours per week, higher self-reported ability levels, and a preference for strategy games. The Bayesian network analysis further specified that high levels of problematic gaming directly depended on the presence of low "Acting with Awareness" scores. Conversely, maladaptive personality traits and attentional control issues appeared to play a less central role in the direct prediction of problematic gaming within this network. The findings suggest that a key feature of problematic gamers is a high level of spontaneous thinking, manifested either as mind wandering or a lack of acting with awareness. This implies that deficits in present-moment attention are more critical to the development of gaming disorder than broad personality traits or general attentional control deficits. The study highlights the utility of advanced network analysis methods in psychopathology research, offering a clearer understanding of the specific psychological mechanisms involved in addictive behaviors. These results support the potential for mindfulness-based interventions, particularly those targeting the "Acting with Awareness" facet, as effective strategies for preventing or treating problematic gaming.

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• mind wandering