Digital game playing motives among adolescents: Relations to parent–child communication, school...

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Digital game playing motives among adolescents: Relations to parent–childcommunication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health

Marjut Wallenius a,⁎, Arja Rimpelä b, Raija-Leena Punamäki a, Tomi Lintonen b,c

a Department of Psychology, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finlandb Tampere School of Public Health, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finlandc University of Tampere Center for Advanced Study, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Available online 18 March 2009 The aims of this research were to describe Finnish adolescents' different motives for digitalgame playing, and to examine relations between digital game playing and parent–childcommunication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health. A questionnairewas used to assess a nationwide postal sample of 12–18-year-old Finns (6761 respondents,response rate 69%) in winter 2003. Among respondents, 4085 adolescents played digital gamesand answered questions on digital game motives. Two main motives emerged: instrumental(learn new things and procedures, have a common topic for conversation, use and developgame playing skills, experience different roles/worlds) and ritualized (pastime, entertainment;recover, relax; escape everyday life, forget worries). The importance of all motives increased forparticipants with longer playing times. Instrumental motives were more important to boys andyounger respondents. They were associated with earlier bedtime, worse perceived health,better mother communication, and better school grades, but only among boys. The importanceof ritualized motives increased with age and was related to better school performance, worsesleeping habits, and worse perceived health in both sexes. Digital games seem to have the samebasic functions as media in serving adolescents' mood management and stimulation seeking.Among boys, gaming is part of the male socio-cultural communication context.

© 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:AdolescentsDigital game playing motivesParent–child communicationSchool performanceSleeping habitsPerceived health

1. Introduction

Digital (also referred to in literature as computer or video) game playing is very popular among young persons. About 75–90%of school-aged children play digital games. Boys are more likely to play than girls, and they play more frequently and for longerperiods than girls (Buchman & Funk, 1996; Colwell & Payne, 2000; Durkin & Barber, 2002; Griffiths,1997a; Ho & Lee, 2001; Phillips,Rolls, Rouse, & Griffiths, 1995; Punamäki, Wallenius, Nygård, Saarni, & Rimpelä, 2007). The amount of playing decreases with ageduring adolescence (Buchman & Funk, 1996).

A great number of digital games (40–80%) involve violent elements, such as fighting or destruction, defined as acts causing ordesigned to cause injury or death to another character (Dietz, 1998; Funk, Hagan, & Schimming, 1999; Salakoski, Mustonen, Sipari, &Pulkkinen, 2002; Thomson & Haninger, 2001). Digital games have been developed to be visually more realistic, and the interactivenature of playing and the active role of the player have becomemore common. These features increasing visual reality may lead to asense of immersion or psychological flow characterized by focused concentration, distorted sense of time, and temporarily lostawarenessof self (Csikszentmihalyi,1988;Harvey, Loomis, Bell, &Marino,1998).At the same timecomputer-mediated communicationis more impersonal and offers less rich information than face to face contacts (Berry, 1993; Clark, 1996; Sproull & Kiesler, 1991).

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 463–474

⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 3 215 111; fax: +358 3 215 7345.E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Wallenius).

0193-3973/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2008.12.021

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology


There is a concern about the potential detrimental effects of digital games on child and adolescent behavior, health anddevelopment. Results are, however, inconsistent in that some studies show neutral or even positive effects, whereas others showincreasing aggression, weak social relations or poor academic performance (for reviews see Bensley & Van Eenwyk, 2001; Sherry,2001; Subrahmanyam, Greenfield, Kraut, & Gross, 2001). Few results exist on the health effects of game playing (for a review seeWartella, O'Keefe, & Scantlin, 2000). Even less is known about the reasons and motives underlying digital game playing. Thesefactors may be important in understanding how digital games affect child and adolescent development and health.

Research on themotivation to use traditional media show that people usemedia actively and selectively (Ferguson & Perse, 2000;Perse,1992), seekingdifferentuses and gratifications for themselves (Rubin,1993,1994). Twomodels are prominent as explanationsofmedia use: balance theory and the activation model. According to balance theory, people seek cognitive and emotional balancethroughmoodmanagement.Media serves this byhelpingpeople to compensate onemoodwith another,moredesirable one (Bryant&Zillmann,1984; Zillmann,1988). For instance, Potts and Sanchez (1994) found that viewingdrama and comedycan serve as ameans ofescape from a depressive mood. The activation model explains media use as a part of individual's search for optimal physiologicalarousal level (Donohew, Palmgreen, & Duncan, 1980; Rowland, Fouts, & Heartherton, 1989; Zillmann, Hezel, & Medoff, 1980;Zuckerman, 1988). One way of finding arousal is to turn to the media when bored or understimulated.

Researchers have developed typologies to describe media use motives. Rubin (1993, 1994) distinguishes between instrumentaland ritualized media use motives. Instrumental media use refers to active and purposive orientation, often information seeking.One example would be viewing television news and documentaries (Perse, 1992; Rubin, 1981, 1983); another would be use of theInternet to find information (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000). Ritualized media use is not directed at any specific content done for thepurpose of passing time, or providing entertainment or relaxation in general (Ferguson & Perse, 2000; Perse, 1990; Perse & Dunn,1998). Mustonen (1997) extended Rubin's classification to include social motives, which involve virtual friends and parasocialrelations (one-sided relations, as between a person and celebrity) (Rubin &McHugh,1987; Rubin, Perse, & Powell, 1985) as well astopics for conversation and means to get social approval in real communication (Harris, 1994; Kraut, Mukopadhyay, Szczypula,Kiesler, & Scherlis, 1998).

Research on digital game playing motives reveals similar ritualized motives, including passing the time, escaping from oravoiding doing other things, cheering oneself, and initiating action (Griffiths, 1997a; Griffiths & Hunt, 1998; Phillips et al., 1995;Selnow, 1984). Cognitive or instrumentally oriented motives do not seem to guide digital game playing. Children rarely (2–4%)mention education or the opportunity to learn new skills as good things in computer games (Griffiths, 1997a; Griffiths & Hunt,1998). Preferred typically by girls and younger children, educational games are not among the most favoured (Buchman & Funk,1996). Digital games, likewise, may provide an electronic friendship (Selnow, 1984) and companionship, especially for boys(Colwell, Grady, & Rhaiti, 1995; Colwell & Payne, 2000). Computer game playing may also strengthen group membership andprovide common activity (Griffiths, 1997a; Selnow, 1984). Gender differences in social approval play an important role in digitalgame choices (Cooper, Hall, & Huff, 1990; Funk & Buchman,1996). In general, digital game playing is characterized to represent themale culture, oriented primarily to meet male abilities and needs for social inclusion, and a child who assumes gaming patterns ofthe opposite sex may be rejected by peers (Lucas & Sherry, 2004; Yates & Littleton, 1999).

There is some research on the effects of computer use and computer game playing on academic performance, social relations,and well-being. Most parents believe computers to be an educational resource (Turow, 1999). This receives some support fromresults showing a moderate positive effect of home computer use including digital games and Internet activities on academicperformance (Durkin & Barber, 2002; Subrahmanyam et al., 2001). However, heavier recreational Internet use and digital playingare related to impaired academic performance, even to missing class (Durkin & Barber, 2002; Kubey, Lavin, & Barrows, 2001;Subrahmanyam et al., 2001).Thus, the effects seem to differ according to level and motivation of usage.

There is evidence that the impact of computer use on social development is dependent on motivational factors. Whereasinformation seeking as a primary motive is related to a social and active lifestyle (Ho & Lee, 2001; Katz & Aspden, 1997; Mesch,2001; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000), heavier recreational use as a primary motive is related to decline in family communication(Kraut et al., 2002, 1998), loneliness, and less prosocial attitudes (Kubey et al., 2001; Mesch, 2001; Subrahmanyam et al., 2001).Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) found that Internet use served as a functional alternative to face-to-face interaction for those whowere less satisfied with the quality of the social interactions in their own lives.

Contrary to the research on Internet use, studies have not discovered positive relations between the duration of computer gameplaying and social isolation, loneliness and social unpopularity. Game players either do not differ from nonplayers in the quality ofsocial relations (Griffiths, 1997b; Phillips et al., 1995; van Schie & Wiegman, 1997) or they have more intensive friendships thannonplayers (Colwell et al., 1995; Durkin & Barber, 2002).

In a family context, interactive media, such as game consoles or computers, tend to increase gender and generation gaps, withnew media belonging more to male territory and the peer society of children (Pasquier, Buzzi, d'Haenens, & Sjöberg, 1998). Ingeneral, parents' knowledge of children's game-playing habits and preferences is insufficient (Ermi & Mäyrä, 2003; Funk et al.,1999). Children rarely play with parents, or talk about playing and computers with their parents (Pasquier et al., 1998). Accordingto Durkin and Barber's (2002) results, however, computer game playing does not threaten family relations in general. Computergame players scored more favourably on both family closeness and friendship networks, as well as on activity involvement,compared to those who never played computer games.

Research suggests that intensive computer use and game playing may form a risk for children's and adolescents' well-being.Digital games have been found to be associated with an increase in somatic complaints (Tanaka, Tamai, Terashima, Takenaka, &Tanaka, 2000) and depression (Durkin & Barber, 2002) in schoolchildren, and also in the possibility of epileptic attacks (for a reviewsee Wartella et al., 2000). In addition, other health-related problems found in adolescents, such as musculoskeletal complaints

464 M. Wallenius et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 463–474


(Alexander& Currie, 2004; Hakala, Rimpelä, Saarni, & Salminen, 2006; Jacobs& Baker, 2002; Vikat et al., 2000), passive lifestyle, andoverweight (Kautiainen, Koivusilta, Lintonen, Virtanen, & Rimpelä, 2005; Wartella et al., 2000) may have their origins in computeruse and game playing. Staying up late and tiredness are related to a heavier recreational use of the Internet (Kubey et al., 2001;Subrahmanyam et al., 2001). Further, there is evidence that the amount of daytime sleepiness among adolescents has increased ingeneral during the recent years (Fukuda & Ishihara, 2001; Saarenpää-Heikkilä, Laippala, & Koivikko, 2001; Thorleifsdottir,Björnsson, Benediktsdottir, Gislason, &Kristbjarnarson, 2002) but it is not clearwhether these changes in sleeping habits are relatedto digital game playing.

Overall, present research suggests that patterns of media use are as important as exposure time when predicting the effects ofmedia use. For example Shah,McLeod, and So-Hyang (2001) state that the effects of watching television depend on the content ratherthan on the duration. However Mesch (2001) suggests that future studies on Internet use should investigate the differences betweenusers in regard to both the amount of use and the content of activities. One reason for a lack of clarity between the importance ofamount and contentmight be thatmany studies have focused on the amount or content of media usewithout paying attention to themotives for use, such as social communication. Media use may have different effects depending on the user's motives: informationseeking predicts higher social–behavioral activity, whereas recreational use predicts lower academic performance and lower well-being. For those socially less involved,media usemay serve as a substitute for face-to-face contacts. Moreover, the socio-psychologicaleffects of media use seem to be mediated by gender, boys being more vulnerable to these effects than girls.

In this study, we investigated the motives adolescents endorse for playing digital games, and we asked how different motivesare related to wellbeing. Specifically, the purposes of the study are

1. To describe the variety of motives for digital game playing among Finnish adolescents and to examine how game motives arerelated to demographic variables (sex and age) and exposure time of playing games.

2. To examine the relations of digital game playing motives to parent–child communication, school performance, sleeping habitsand perceived health. Because of the gender-specific nature of digital game playing (e.g. Lucas & Sherry, 2004), we examined thepatterns of these relationships separately among girls and boys.

The term ‘digital games’ is used here as a general term, referring to games played on computers, the Internet and TV as well asgames played on equipment specifically designed for game playing, such as video game consoles. Finnish adolescents play thesame digital games in English as adolescents in other western countries. Nearly all students in Finland are fluent in English by thistime.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants and procedure

The data were collected as part of a nationwide monitoring system of adolescent health and health-related behaviors, theAdolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey (AHLS) in winter 2003. Self-administered questionnaires were mailed to nationallyrepresentative samples of 12,14,16, and 18-year-olds with two re-inquiries to non-respondents. The samplewas obtained from thePopulation Register Center and based on particular dates of birth in June, July and August, so that all Finns born on the sample dayswere included. Datawere collected in February–April 2003. Respondingwas voluntary, and the purpose of the studywas explainedin an accompanying cover letter.

The total number of participants responding to the AHLS was 6761 (3728 girls, 3033 boys). The response rate was 69%.1 Thenumber of adolescents responding to the question “How much time, on the average, do you spend daily on playing computer,Internet, TV or console games” was 6620 (3667 girls, 2953 boys). Out of these, 1769 (26.7%) did not play digital games at all. Thisincluded 1532 girls (41.8% of the girls) and 237 boys (8% of the boys). The left 4851 respondents (of whom 56% were boys) playeddigital games at least sporadically if not daily. The final number of participants in the data analysis was 4085 players (61.2% boys)who had also answered the questions concerning motives for playing digital games. In the final data set the age groups were 14.1%12-year-olds, 39.2% 14-year-olds, 31.7% 16-year-olds, and 14.9% 18-year-olds. Most of the participants (86.5%) lived in a family withboth parents, 12.7% had a single parent family, and a small number (0.7%) of adolescents cohabited. Most of the parents had eitherlow (38%) or middle level (43.1%) education and less frequently (18.9%) university level education. For the gamers who failed toanswer the motives question (548 girls, 218 boys), the amount of those who did not play daily (84.7% of girls, 55.5% of boys) wasgreater than among those who responded to the game motive questions (69.8% and 28.3%, respectively).

2.1.1. Equivalence with non-respondentsTo ascertain that the data reported here are representative of the population as a whole, we assessed similarity with non-

respondents. The data of AHLS 2003 were divided into three categories according to the return date of the questionnaire. Weassumed that the later the person answered the questionnaire (original questionnaire, first re-inquiry, second re-inquiry) themorehe/she resembles a non-respondent. Because there were no systematic or statistical differences in the categories of digital gameplaying among all respondents, or by age and sex, according to time of return, we are more confident in believing that this sampleis representative.

1 Response rates for 12, 14, 16, and 18 year-old girls (in respective order) were 75%, 78%, 79% and 74%, and for boys 69%, 66%, 59% and 50%.

465M. Wallenius et al. / Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 30 (2009) 463–474


2.1.2. Repeatability studiesA sub-sample of 14–16-year-olds (N=800)were selected from the original sample by systematic sampling randomizing every 5th

person. An identical questionnaire was sent to thosewho answered the survey (N=566) four weeks after receipt of their completedoriginal questionnaires. Of these, 447 (79%) returned the questionnaire. Test–retest reliability was tested with Pearson productmoment correlations. Reliabilitieswere good ranging from .58 to .79. Single test-values are presented in connectionwith each variable.

2.2. Measures

2.2.1. Exposure time to digital game playingExposure time to digital game playing was indicated by the daily hours spent on playing computer, Internet, TV, or console

games. Response alternatives were (1) not at all, (2) not daily, (3) 1 h or less, (4) 2–3 h, (5) 4–5 h and (6)more than 5 h a day. Test–retest reliability r = .69.

2.2.2. Digital game playing motivesReasons to play digital games were elicited with the question “What is most important to you in game playing”, and measured

by a list of seven possible motives compiled from previous research on media uses and gratifications and digital game playingmotives (Ferguson & Perse, 2000; Griffiths, 1997a; Griffiths & Hunt, 1998; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Perse & Dunn, 1998; Phillipset al., 1995; Potts & Sanchez, 1994; Selnow, 1984), and constructed for the present study. The seven motives were as follows:

1. “I am looking for special experiences and excitement in games, I get to know different roles and worlds.”2. “For me, gaming is a pastime or entertainment.”3. “I play to recover and to relax.”4. “I play to get away from everyday life, to forget troubles and worries.”5. “In games, I can use and develop my game skills, speed, and smartness.”6. “Games are a uniting interest and common topic to discuss with friends.”7. “I learn new things and functions in gaming.”

For each item in the list, respondents rated the importance of that motive on a 4-point scale (1) not important at all, (2) slightlyimportant, (3) quite important, and (4) very important. Test–retest reliabilities r = .73–.79.

2.2.3. Parent–child communicationParticipants were asked separately how easy or difficult it is to speak to their mother and to speak to their father about ‘things

that really bother you’. The choices were (1) very easy, (2) easy, (3), difficult, (4) very difficult, and (5) no mother/father. Test–retest reliabilities r = .72 (mother) and .67 (father).

2.2.4. School performanceThere were two measures of school performance. Respondents rated their school grades in their latest report compared with the

average level of the class as (1) much better, (2) better, (3) about class average, (4) slightly poorer, and (5) much poorer. Test–retest reliability r = .74. Educational planswere indicated by choosing (1) I will take matriculation (high school) examination andapply to university or college (2) I will takematriculation examination but probably not apply to university or college (3) I will takea vocational degree, (4) I cannot say, and (5) I will not continue any studies. Test–retest reliability r = .63.

2.2.5. Sleeping habitsSleeping habits were indicated by two variables. The usual time of going to bed on an ordinary school day was indicated by

selecting one of the options from21:00 h to 00:30 h at half-hour intervals. Test–retest reliability r=.73.Waking-time tirednesswasmeasured by askingwhether the participant had felt tired during the daytime during the lastmonth on a scale (1) not at all, (2) lessthan once a week, (3) on 1–2 days a week, (4) on 3–5 days a week, and (5) daily or almost daily. Test–retest reliability r = .63.

2.2.6. Perceived healthFirst, participants were asked to rate their current health status on a 5-point scale (1) very good, (2) quite good, (3) average,

(4) rather poor, (5) very poor. Test–retest reliability r = .58. They were asked further to report the occurrence of ten healthcomplaints during the last six months: (1) seldom or not at all, (2) about once amonth, (3) about once aweek, and (4) almost daily.The items used for health complaints were: stomach-ache; tension or nervousness; irritability or temper tantrums; trouble fallingasleep or waking at night; headache; trembling of hands; feeling tired or weak; feeling dizzy; neck–shoulder pains; and low backpains. A sum variable was constructed counting the number of symptoms occurring weekly or daily. Test–retest reliability r= .70.

3. Results

3.1. Descriptive statistics

Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics for the variables by sex and age. Overall, participantswere not extensive game players:less than 30% of the participants played digital games frequently. Specifically, 44.4% played less than once a day, and 26.7% played



1 h or less a day. Frequent players included 21.8% of the respondents who played 2 to 3 h a day and theminority that played 4 to 5 h(4.6%) or more (2.5%) a day. The results of 2 (sex) × 4 (age) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) based on Wilks' Lambdaindicated significant multivariate effects of sex [F(9, 4069) = 113.14, p b .001] and age [F(27, 11,884) = 50.34, p b .001], and amultivariate interaction of sex and age [F(27, 11,884) = 4.43, p b .001]. Univariate and post hoc (Tukey HSD, p b .05) analyses ofvariance further showed that boys spentmore time on a daily basis than girls in playing digital games, and that game playing timesof both boys and girls decreased with age so that 18-year-olds played significantly less than younger participants.

Table 1Descriptive data by sex a and age b.

Variable Age Girls Boys F c

M SD M SD

Daily exposure time to digital game playing FSex 592.20⁎⁎FAge 9.20⁎⁎

12 2.53 0.78 3.21 0.9014 2.41 0.70 3.33 1.0316 2.41 0.75 3.37 1.1118 2.31 0.68 2.99 1.08

Speaking to mother difficult d FAge 31.13⁎⁎12 1.87 0.70 1.95 0.7014 2.26 0.83 2.18 0.7616 2.28 0.86 2.28 0.8218 2.27 0.86 2.28 0.84

Speaking to father difficult d FSex 78.59⁎⁎FAge 35.59⁎⁎

12 2.44 0.90 2.26 0.8014 2.83 0.90 2.46 0.8716 2.97 0.93 2.59 0.9418 2.93 0.96 2.72 0.91

Plans for education d FAge 39.64⁎⁎12 2.82 1.37 2.83 1.2414 2.27 1.26 2.44 1.1916 2.13 1.14 2.24 1.1518 2.11 1.35 2.24 1.28

School grades above average d FSex 23.77⁎⁎FAge 13.26⁎⁎

12 2.30 0.81 2.56 0.7914 2.37 0.89 2.58 0.9716 2.63 0.90 2.65 0.9118 2.58 0.76 2.71 0.92

Bed-going time FAge 316.04⁎⁎FSex × Age 10.78⁎⁎

12 3.02 1.14 2.94 1.2214 3.90 1.38 4.00 1.3316 4.44 1.57 5.01 1.5118 5.02 1.68 5.57 1.56

Waking-time tiredness FSex 105.81⁎⁎FAge 127.29⁎⁎

12 2.39 0.97 2.12 0.8514 2.99 1.08 2.59 0.9816 3.41 1.03 2.92 1.0418 3.36 1.03 3.05 1.00

General health d FAge 55.02⁎⁎FSex × Age 5.97⁎⁎

12 1.56 0.62 1.59 0.6414 1.92 0.72 1.80 0.7116 2.13 0.78 1.87 0.7818 2.19 0.84 1.93 0.81

Health complaints FSex 179.75⁎⁎FSex × Age 8.43⁎⁎

12 1.27 1.44 0.99 1.1814 1.86 1.87 1.13 1.4216 2.28 1.91 1.22 1.5018 2.27 1.99 1.28 1.58

Note. **p b .001.a N girls = 1587, N boys = 2498.b N 12 years = 576, N 14 years = 1603, N 16 years = 1296, N 18 years = 610.c dfSex (1, 4077), dfAge (3, 4077), dfSex × Age (3, 4077).d Smaller values mean better condition.



Parent–child communication generally decreasedwith age. Speaking to themother about things that bothered themwas easierfor 12-year-olds than for older adolescents; speaking to the father became more difficult with age until 16 years of age. For girlsspeaking to the father was generally more difficult than for boys.

With age, participants' level of educational plans increased but ratings of school grades decreased. In all ages boys rated theirschool grades lower than girls. Bed-time increasedwith age, and 16- to 18-year-old boys went to bed significantly later than girls ofthe same age. Still, girls expressed waking-time tiredness more than boys at all ages. Respondents also rated their general healthlower the older they were. At 16 and 18 years girls rated their general health significantly worse than boys of the same age. Inaddition, girls expressed greater number of health complaints than boys in all age groups, and the number of girls' healthcomplaints increased with age.

3.2. Digital game playing motives and their relations to sex, age, and exposure time

Themost commonmotive for playing games in all groups by sex and agewas pastime and entertainment. Adjusted for age and sex,72% of the respondents stated that this was either a very important or an important motive for playing (Table 2). The second mostcommonmotives were developing game playing skills among the 12 and 14-year-olds and relaxation among the 16 and 18-year-olds.On the average, the least commonmotivewas getting a common topic for conversation among friends; however, boys aged 12 and 14considered this reason important (47%) as well. Fewer girls than boys rated any game motives as ‘important or very important’.

The mean values of each of the seven digital game playing motives were subjected to principal component analysis withoblimin rotation. Oblimin rotation was chosen because we expected the motive components to correlate. This procedure revealedtwo principal components with eigenvalues greater than 1.0, and accounting for 61% of the variance. The rotated loadings arepresented in Table 3. The first principal component was interpreted to represent instrumental motives (e.g. learn, develop skills,experience new, topics for conversation), and the second ritualized motives (e.g. pass the time, recover, escape) (see Rubin, 1993,1994). Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .78 and .64, respectively. The correlation between the principal components was .37.Separate analyses for girls and boys resulted in extraction of the same two components. Based on the analysis of all responses, theprincipal component scores were calculated for later analysis using the regression method.

To examine how digital game playing motives differed according to demographic variables and exposure time, we conducted a 2(sex)×4 (age)×5 (exposure time)multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA),with instrumental and ritualizedmotives as dependentvariables. The results based onWilks' Lambda yielded a significantmultivariatemain effect for sex [F(2, 4044)=13.12, p b .001], for age[F(6, 8088) = 9.89, p b .001], and for exposure time [F(8, 8088) = 30.66, p b .001]. The interactions were not significant.

In the multivariate model, separate univariate and post hoc (Tukey HSD, p b .05) analyses further showed the main effect of sexto be statistically significant for instrumental motives (Table 4). The instrumental motives for digital game playwere higher amongboys than among girls, whereas ritualized motives did not differ according to sex. Univariate F values also revealed the main effectof age to be statistically significant for both of the motive dimensions. Post hoc comparisons indicated that the importance of

Table 2The percentages considering given options as very important or important motives for digital game playing by gender and age.

Game playing motives Girls Boys

12 years(%)

14 years(%)

16 years(%)

18 years(%)

12 years(%)

14 years(%)

16 years(%)

18 years(%)

Pass the time, entertainment 57 68 72 73 71 76 79 80Use and develop game playing skills 37 37 31 31 57 51 44 41Recover, relax 25 32 37 41 36 44 52 53Get away from everyday life, forget worries 21 30 35 31 38 37 41 39Experiences, different roles and worlds 21 22 18 12 37 35 30 39Learn new things and functions 27 18 14 12 46 39 31 24Common topics for conversation 14 8 6 5 52 42 29 21n 259 650 462 216 317 953 834 394

Table 3Oblimin-rotated principal components of the digital game playing motives.

Item Principal components

Instrumental motives Ritualized motives

Learn new things and functions .88 − .08Common topic for conversation .79 − .06Use and develop game playing skills .77 .06Experiences, different roles and worlds .59 .22Pass the time, entertainment − .16 .82Recover, relax − .13 .78Get away from everyday life, forget worries .29 .56Eigenvalues 3.15 1.21Percentage of the explained variance (61%) 45% 16%



instrumental motives decreased, and the importance of ritualizedmotives increased significantlywith age. The age groups differedsignificantly from each other except for 16 and 18-year-olds in ritualized motives (Fig. 1).

Furthermore, separate univariate analyses of variance revealed that exposure time was a significant predictor of bothinstrumental and ritualized motives; the importance of both types of motives increased along with exposure time (Table 4). Theexposure time groups differed significantly from each other. As an exception to this, with regard to ritualized motives, those whoplayed 2–3 h/day did not differ from those who played 4–5 h/day.

3.3. Relations of digital game playing motives to parent–child communication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health

Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the relations of parent–child communication, schoolperformance, sleep patterns, and perceived health to instrumental and ritualized motives for digital game playing. Separatehierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted for girls and boys. Both instrumental and ritualized motive dimensionswere used as dependent variables. In all the analyses, age and exposure time as control variables were entered into the equationfirst in a single step. After that variables measuring parent–child communication, school performance, sleeping habits, andperceived health were free to enter the regression equation, using stepwise procedure. The results are shown in Table 5.

Table 4The group means (and standard deviations) of instrumental and ritualized principal components of digital game playing motives by demographic variables anddaily exposure time to playing.

Variable Instrumental motives Ritualized motives

M (SD) F a M (SD) F a

Sex 25.92⁎⁎ 1.44Girl − 0.38 (0.84) − 0.14 (1.03)Boy 0.24 (1.02) 0.09 (1.00)

Age 9.76⁎⁎ 4.07⁎12 0.23 (1.02) − 0.30 (1.02)14 0.08 (1.00) − 0.05 (0.99)16 − 0.10 (0.97) 0.11 (0.98)18 − 0.22 (0.96) 0.18 (0.99)

Daily exposure time 48.86⁎⁎ 31.70⁎⁎Not daily − 0.37 (0.86) − 0.23 (0.99)1 h or less − 0.02 (0.91) 0.04 (0.98)2–3 h 0.48 (0.98) 0.25 (0.92)4–5 h 0.81 (0.95) 0.37 (0.95)More than 5 h 1.13 (1.03) 0.84 (0.89)

Note. *p b .01. **p b .001.a For sex F(1, 4045); for age F(3, 4045); for exposure time F(4, 4045).

Fig. 1. Means of instrumental and ritualized motives for digital game playing by age.



The set of covariates (age and exposure time) entered in Step 1 accounted for 7.9% (adjusted R2) of the variance in instrumentalgame playing motives in girls and for 16.1% in boys. Younger and more intensive players were more instrumentally oriented.Variables measuring perceived health, sleeping habits, parent–child communication, and school performance accounted for anadditional 1.5% of the variance among boys, but they did not add to the prediction of instrumental motives among girls. Generalhealthwasworse, weekly health complaints more numerous, the bed-going time earlier, mother communication easier, and schoolgrades in the latest report better among the more instrumentally oriented boys.

Age and exposure time emerged as the most powerful predictors of ritualized motives, as well, and they accounted for 5.1%(adjusted R2) of the variance among girls and 8.3% among boys. Older and more intensive players expressed higher ritualizedmotivation. In both sexes, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health were significant predictors. The increase in R2

(adjusted), after age and exposure time were controlled, was 3% for girls and 2.6% for boys. More specifically, better than averageschool grades, more ambitious educational plans, waking-time tiredness, and greater number of health complaints were related toan increase in ritualized motives. In addition, later bed-going time among girls and poorer health status among boys predictedhigher ritualized motivation.

4. Discussion

The aim of this study was to learn about adolescents' motives to play digital games, and whether these motives were associatedwith parent–child communication, school performance, sleeping habits, and perceived health. Similar to earlier results on mediamotives, we found twomain sets of motives for digital playing, representing instrumental and ritualized orientations, which varied

Table 5Summary of hierarchical multiple regression analyses for variables predicting instrumental and ritualizedmotives for playing digital games, separately for girls andboys.

Sex Block Variable B SE B Beta Change R2

Dependent variable: Instrumental motivesGirls 1 .079⁎⁎⁎

Exposure time .26 .03 .23⁎⁎⁎Age − .07 .01 − .15⁎⁎⁎

2 a nsTotal model: R2 (adjusted) = .077; F(2, 1584) = 67.51, p b .001

Boys 1 .161⁎⁎⁎Exposure time .35 .02 .36⁎⁎⁎Age − .07 .01 − .12⁎⁎⁎

2 a

Health status b .10 .03 .07⁎⁎⁎ .005⁎⁎⁎Bed-going time − .05 .01 − .08⁎⁎⁎ .004⁎⁎⁎Health complaints .05 .01 .07⁎⁎⁎ .003⁎⁎Speaking to mother difficult b − .06 .02 − .04⁎ .002⁎School grades b − .04 .02 − .04⁎ .001⁎

Total model: R2 (adjusted) = .174; F(7, 2490) = 76.32, p b .001

Dependent variable: Ritualized motivesGirls 1 .051⁎⁎⁎

Exposure time .24 .03 .17⁎⁎⁎Age .05 .02 .10⁎⁎⁎

2 a

Waking-time tiredness .07 .03 .08⁎⁎ .012⁎⁎⁎Educational plans b − .06 .02 − .07⁎⁎ .007⁎⁎⁎Bed-going time .05 .02 .08⁎⁎ .005⁎⁎School grades b − .07 .03 − .06⁎ .003⁎Health complaints .03 .02 .06⁎ .003⁎Total model: R2 (adjusted) = .078; F(7, 1579) = 20.06, p b .001

Boys 1 .083⁎⁎⁎Exposure time .23 .02 .25⁎⁎⁎Age .06 .01 .11⁎⁎⁎

2 a

Educational plans b − .08 .02 − .09⁎⁎⁎ .010⁎⁎⁎Waking-time tiredness .06 .02 .07⁎⁎ .008⁎⁎⁎Health complaints .04 .01 .06⁎⁎ .003⁎⁎School grades b − .07 .02 − .07⁎⁎⁎ .003⁎⁎Health status b .06 .03 .05⁎ .002⁎Total model: R2 (adjusted) = .108; F(7, 2490) = 43.39, p b .001

Note. *p b .05. **p b .01. ***p b .001.a Stepwise.b Smaller values mean better condition.



according to sex, age, and exposure time. Instrumental motives were related to healthy sleeping habits, worse perceived health,better mother communication, and better school grades among boys, whereas ritualized motives were associated with betterreports on both aspects of school performance, worse sleeping habits, and worse health independent of sex.

Earlier conceptualizations of media motives were based predominantly on watching television and using the Internet(Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Rubin, 1993, 1994). The seven digital game playing motives in this study formed two clearlydistinguishable, though correlated, motive dimensions, which map onto Rubin's (1993, 1994) classification of media motives.Motives such as learning new things and developing one's skills are typical to the instrumental orientation to digital game playing.The primary interest is cognitive in nature. It is noteworthy that finding common topics for conversation, which can be interpretedas a social motive (Mustonen, 1997), was included here in the instrumental dimension. Game playing interests and skills areshared. Purposes like passing the time, escaping everyday life, and forgetting worries, for their part, express a ritualized andemotional way of using computer games. Interesting enough, searching for experiences, meeting different kinds of roles andworlds as a game motive, which was thought to represent emotional experiences, loaded more on the instrumentally orienteddimension. Meeting new worlds and realities seems to serve both emotional and informational and cognitive interests. These datasuggest that digital game playing serves the same basic functions as the other forms of media. Our results, thus, lend some supportto Bryant's and Davies' (2006) suggestion that selective exposure to digital games may serve the same basic motive as selectiveexposure to other media to manage moods. This is a question for future research.

We found that the two motive components correlated. The correlation between the two motive dimensions can be understoodthrough the balance theory: an interesting content allowing immersion (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988) together with sufficient gameplaying skills are the prerequisites for using games in mood management and for stimulating purposes.

Our results revealed significant sex differences in the importance of instrumental but not ritualized game motives. Boysreported instrumental motives to be more important than girls did. This lends support to earlier results (Colwell et al., 1995;Colwell & Payne, 2000), which indicate that the importance of digital games in social communication is greater for boys than forgirls. Digital game contents are important as such, and as a means of social communication, yet the question remains: whyespecially for boys. The usual way of explaining girls' weaker interest in gaming is their lack of engagement with technology andcomputers in general. However, Yates and Littleton (1999) prefer to view gaming as a socially constructed activity, where differentgamers take up different subject positions permitting them to read the game's affordances and to attune their abilities to thesituation. Usually, the preferred readings of games are oriented to male subject positions, whereas women and girls select subjectpositions and competencies from their own life world. Accordingly, games need to be viewed as media texts, which are activelyinterpreted by different ‘audiences’ or communities of gamers with their own cultural niches. Yates and Littleton (1999) suggestthat one possible gender difference in engaging with games might arise from the male and female willingness to assume thesubject position of a gamer. The social costs, or social stigma, of taking up the subject position of being a gamer is likely to havemore of an impact upon women and girls.

Interestingly, there were no sex differences with regard to the importance of ritualized motives. In spite of the weaker status ofgaming in female cultures, games are able to serve girls as well as boys as ameans of moodmanagement.We do not knowwhetherboys and girls select the same or different games for ritualized purposes. Can a game fulfil the same motives for boys and girls,although the gender readings of the game differ? Yates and Littleton (1999) observed that game genres (such as ‘strategy games’ or‘fighting games’) offer a resource that gamers employ in their reading of the games, and form the basis for their expectations aboutthe structure, content and affordances provided by the game. Further investigation should be conducted about the gender-specificrelations of game motives and game types.

The importance of gamemotives changedwith age from 12 to 18-year-olds. Ritualizedmotives increased in importance and theimportance of instrumental motives decreased. Ways of coping change over time when children get older. More developedcognitive capacities allow more sophisticated approaches (Lengua & Long, 2002), and digital games may offer a new means ofcoping and mood management for adolescents when they abandon some coping patterns typical of childhood. This raises thepossibility that digital game playing replaces other ways of coping used by thosewho do not play, or that were used by adolescentsof earlier generations. For instance, Kubey and Csikszentmihalyi (1990) found that heavy television viewing is a means of escapingsolitude and negative experiences. We do not know if the differences between the age groups reflect real developmental changes,i.e., if the adolescents now using digital game playing for recreation andmoodmanagement were more instrumentally oriented intheir childhood. This is, however, more likely than the alternative that some children might give up instrumental playing afterchildhood whereas others begin ritualized digital game playing on reaching adolescence. It appears that the motivational functionof digital game playing may change during the developmental transition from one stage of life to another. To examine intra-individual changes in digital game motives would necessitate a longitudinal follow-up study.

According to our results, both instrumental and ritualized motives were rated more important the more time was devoted togame playing. The relative preference for one or the other motive type did not change with exposure time. Thus, intensive gamersdo not differ from others with regard to the content of their motives. Why are they so motivated in game playing? Could it be thatthey have fewer compensatory activities? Durkin and Barber's (2002) results do not support this but possible cultural differencesshould be studied. Finnish school aged children and adolescents have good possibilities for hobbies and organized leisure activities.Thus, we assume that the results concerning them are possible to be generalized to adolescents in other western counties.

Instrumental and ritualizedmotives display somewhat different patterns of relations with parent–child communication, schoolperformance, sleeping habits, and perceived health. Our results agreewith earlier results, according towhich playing digital games(Durkin & Barber, 2002) as well as computer and the Internet use (Ho & Lee, 2001; Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Subrahmanyamet al., 2001) are positively related to academic performance. The new finding in our results is that ritualized motives for digital



playing are especially associated with good school performance. One possible explanation is that ritualized game playing mayserve as a counterbalance to and a way of mood management after a school day with its many demands and complex socialsituations, as well as away to recover before or after homework. Although digital game playing contains restorative elements, suchas the opportunity for immersion (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988), it may demand concentration and thus preclude the recovery ofdirected attention (Hancock & Warm, 1989). Future research might look at the restorative and stressing effects of game playing. Itmust be noted that contradicting findings exist, which show that recreational media use, including video games, is related toimpaired academic performance (Kubey et al., 2001). These results were not confirmed in our study.

Consistent with other studies on recreational use of media (Kubey et al., 2001; Subrahmanyam et al., 2001), ritualized gameplaying was associated with tiredness, and, in our study, with a late bedtime among girls. One possible explanation is the timing ofrecreational and ritualized activities, or doing homework late in the evening. Future research might look at how adolescents dividetheir leisure time among different kinds of activities.

An interesting finding was that both instrumental and ritualized motivation for playing digital games were related to worseperceived health. This relation held for boys only. Worse perceived health may be a result of the gaming culture which does notvalue health enhancement through a physically active lifestyle. Earlier results are mixed, some support this interpretation (Ho &Lee, 2001), but others show that boys who actively play games are also active in sports (Durkin & Barber, 2002). Another possibilityis that worse perceived health is a result of not gaming but stress due to higher standard in school performance andworse sleepinghabits. However, girls perform even better at school and express higher levels of waking-time tiredness than boys, whichmake thisinterpretation somewhat unlikely. The negative relation of gaming motives and health would need further investigation, forinstance by addressing the mediating role of physical activity and cross national differences in gaming cultures.

The study was based on a large nationally representative sample, which gives weight to the findings. The response rates werefairly good, although boys were more reluctant to respond than girls. We selected for our study only those who played digitalgames, and because the number of players was lower among girls, the criterion favoured boys. From among the game players wefurther selected those who had responded to the game motive questions. This procedure omitted girls who did not play daily, orplayed only very seldomly, and who, for this reason, were not interested or able to respond to the motive questions. Consequently,more boys than girls were included in the analyses. The final sample of respondents in our data analysis represented active players,most of whomwere boys. The age range of the respondents was wide (12–18 years), and each of the age cohorts was quite equallyrepresented, with the exception of 18-year-old boys whose response rate remained lower than among boys in general. However,the indirect analysis of non-respondents did not show a selection of respondents by game motives.

When evaluating our study, the items measuring digital game motives formed a clear and easily interpretable structure. Boththe structure and the relations of the motives fitted well with earlier results, but led to new findings, too. Thus, our measure ofdigital gamemotives showed good internal consistency and construct validity. What could have been added is more than one itemconcerning social motives for digital playing. Parent–child communication could have been measured by a standard method. Thelength of the questionnairewas, however, restricted, and increasing it might have reduced the response rate. Objectivemeasures ofschool achievements and bedtime are not realistic in such a large sample and within the framework of available resources.Perceived health status and health complaints are widely used methods when measuring health (e.g. Tanaka et al., 2000).

Acknowledgements

Financial support for the study was received from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and the Health Promotion ResearchProgramme of the Academy of Finland. We thank the many adolescents who participated. We also thank researcher Lasse Pere fordata management and research secretary Marja Vajaranta for language checking, both from the University of Tampere, TampereSchool of Public Health. We are also grateful to the Editors and the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their helpfulsuggestions.

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