Is video gaming, or video game addiction, associated with depression, academic achievement, heavy episodic drinking, or conduct problems?
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While the relationships between video game use and negative consequences are debated, the relationships between video game addiction and negative consequences are fairly well established. However, previous studies suffer from methodological weaknesses that may have caused biased results. There is need for further investigation that benefits from the use of methods that avoid omitted variable bias. METHODS: Two wave panel data was used from two surveys of 1,928 Norwegian adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. The surveys included measures of video game use, video game addiction, depression, heavy episodic drinking, academic achievement, and conduct problems. The data was analyzed using first-differencing, a regression method that is unbiased by time invariant individual factors. RESULTS: Video game addiction was related to depression, lower academic achievement, and conduct problems, but time spent on video games was not related to any of the studied negative outcomes. DISCUSSION: The findings were in line with a growing number of studies that have failed to find relationships between time spent on video games and negative outcomes. The current study is also consistent with previous studies in that video game addiction was related to other negative outcomes, but it made the added contribution that the relationships are unbiased by time invariant individual effects. However, future research should aim at establishing the temporal order of the supposed causal effects. CONCLUSIONS: Spending time playing video games does not involve negative consequences, but adolescents who experience problems related to video games are likely to also experience problems in other facets of life.
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Video game addiction is associated with depression, heavy episodic drinking, and other conduct problems.
“Video game addiction is associated with depression, heavy episodic drinking, and other conduct problems (Brunborg et al., 2014).”
From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Brunborg et al., 2014
The Discussion reports associations with depression and conduct problems, but explicitly says video game addiction was not associated with heavy episodic drinking. That directly contradicts one of the three associations attributed to the paper. (LLM, conf=0.94)
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredGaming disorder is linked to poor sleep, academic underachievement, poor social interaction, and depression.
“correlational studies have found links between GD and poor sleep, academic underachievement, poor social interaction and depression (Brunborg, Mentzoni, & Frøyland, 2014;Velotti, Rogier, Beomonte Zobel, & Billieux, 2021;Zhao et al., 2021).”
From Online Self-Help Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Module for College Students with Higher Gaming Disorder During COVID-19: A Pilot Study (2023) · cites this paper as Brunborg, Mentzoni, & Frøyland, 2014
The Discussion (page unavailable) reports associations between video game addiction, poorer academic achievement, and higher depression. It does not report an association with poor sleep. The Introduction mentions conflict in personal relationships as a proposed feature of addiction, but that does not establish the claimed correlational link with poor social interaction. (LLM, conf=0.90)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAcross studies, addiction to video games is the strongest predictor of academic harm.
“Across studies, addiction to video games is the strongest predictor of academic harm, suggesting that the negative effects observed at this level show broader behavioral and motivational disruptions rather than simple time displacement (Brunborg et al., 2014;Skoric et al., 2009;Samaha & Hawi, 2020).”
From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Brunborg et al., 2014
The Discussion reports that video game addiction was associated with poorer academic achievement, while associations between time spent gaming and negative outcomes were negligible. The Introduction also cites prior research linking addiction to poor academic achievement. Neither passage establishes that addiction is the strongest predictor of academic harm across studies; the paper also cautions that causal direction remains uncertain. Page numbers are not available in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredWhen video game addiction is present, behavioral and motivational problems become stronger influences than time displacement.
“When video game addiction is present, behavioral and motivational problems become stronger influences than time displacement (Brunborg et al., 2014;Skoric et al., 2009;Samaha & Hawi, 2020).”
From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Brunborg et al., 2014
The Results and Discussion (page numbers unavailable) report stronger associations between video game addiction and negative outcomes than between time spent gaming and those outcomes. They do not identify behavioral or motivational problems as the stronger influences, test time displacement as a mechanism, or establish the direction of causation. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOnce gaming crosses into problematic or addictive patterns, the relationship with academic performance becomes consistently negative.
“Taken together, the literature indicates that once gaming crosses into problematic or addictive patterns, the relationship with academic performance becomes consistently negative, supporting the conclusion that addiction, rather than gaming time alone, is the primary factor associated with academic harm (Brunborg et al., 2014;Jiang, 2014;Skoric et al., 2009;Anjum et al., 2024).”
From Extracurricular Video Game Use and Academic Achievement: A Systematic Literature Review (2026) · cites this paper as Brunborg et al., 2014
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- Authors
- Brunborg, G. S., Mentzoni, R. A., & Frøyland, L. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Bergen (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Brunborg, Geir Scott
- Venue
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions
- Publisher
- Akademiai Kiado Zrt.
- Published
- 2014-03
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 27-32
- ISSN
- 2062-5871 (ISSN-L)
- 2063-5303
- PMC
- PMC4117274
- OpenAlex
- W1984144783
- Cited by
- 445
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 61 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 57 · 2021: 47 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 73.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Journal of Behavioral Addictions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository of the Academy's Library (Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) (acceptedVersion)
- BIBSYS Brage (BIBSYS (Norway)) (submittedVersion)
- NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Keywords
- gaming addiction, video game use, depression, academic performance, binge drinking, conduct problems, adolescents, omitted variable bias, first differencing
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