1) ABCD Data
Researchers used information from the ABCD Study collected between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022. They downloaded the data from a version released in July 2023.
The ABCD Study follows thousands of young people across the United States to learn about their development. The study includes 11,572 participants and collects information through surveys, activities, and brain measurements.
Before taking part, parents gave permission and children agreed to participate. A review board at the University of California, San Diego, checked that the study’s procedures were appropriate. The researchers who wrote this report also followed rules for reporting research and for accessing and using the ABCD data.
2) Participants
ABCD participants complete health and behavior assessments each year. Questions about gaming disorder (GD) began at the study’s second follow-up. This research used information from three follow-ups:
- 2-year follow-up: participants were about 11–12 years old, and data were collected from 2018 to 2020.
- 3-year follow-up: participants were about 12–13 years old, and data were collected from 2019 to 2021.
- 4-year follow-up: participants were about 13–14 years old, and data were collected from 2020 to 2022.
Because some participants had not completed the 4-year assessment, the starting group for this study included 4,754 adolescents. Researchers then removed anyone who said they had never played video games during those three follow-ups. The final group included 4,289 adolescents.
Parents reported participants’ race and ethnicity. The categories were Asian, Black, Hispanic, White, and other. “Other” included several groups, people who identified with more than one race, and people who chose not to answer. The study describes the participants’ demographic information in Table 1.