Key terms: In this study, psychopathology means mental health symptoms, including symptoms related to ADHD. GD means gaming disorder. The researchers followed participants over several years and tested whether changes in one were linked to later changes in the other.
What the model-fit numbers mean
The final model had good fit with the data: CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.04, and SRMR = 0.05. In simple terms, these scores suggest that the model described the patterns in the study data fairly well. The β (beta) numbers show the strength and direction of relationships. A positive β means that higher levels of one factor were linked with higher levels of the other.
Results before adding personal characteristics
First, the researchers tested whether mental health symptoms and gaming disorder predicted each other over time, while accounting for sex.
- From the 2-year visit to the 3-year visit, higher mental health symptoms were linked to a small increase in gaming disorder (β = 0.03).
- Mental health symptoms at the 3-year visit were also linked to more gaming disorder at the 4-year visit (β = 0.07).
- However, gaming disorder did not significantly predict later mental health symptoms at either time point.
This pattern suggests that mental health symptoms may come before or contribute to later gaming disorder, rather than gaming disorder predicting later mental health symptoms.
Results after accounting for personal characteristics
The researchers then added personal characteristics that might affect both mental health symptoms and gaming disorder. The first version of this model did not match the data very well. They adjusted the model by assuming that some measurement errors stayed similar across the study years. After this change, the model fit the data well.
- Mental health symptoms at the 3-year visit were linked to slightly more gaming disorder one year later (β = 0.04). This result was statistically significant, but the relationship was small.
- Mental health symptoms from the 2-year visit did not significantly predict gaming disorder at the 3-year visit.
- Gaming disorder still did not significantly predict later mental health symptoms.
So, after personal characteristics were considered, the evidence for a link was found for one time period, but not the other.
Results from another type of analysis
The researchers also used another statistical method that took account of how participants were grouped into families and research locations. This analysis found that mental health symptoms were associated with gaming disorder over time and explained about 21.2% of the differences in gaming-disorder scores among participants.
Overall takeaway
Across the analyses, the general pattern was that mental health symptoms were linked with later gaming disorder. The study did not find clear evidence that gaming disorder was linked with later mental health symptoms. These are relationships in the data, though; they do not prove that mental health symptoms directly cause gaming disorder.
What the statistical notes mean
The confidence interval (CI) gives a range of values that could reasonably describe the relationship. The P value helps researchers judge whether a result may be due to chance: smaller values usually count as stronger statistical evidence. In the figure, the letter notes mean a: P < .001, b: P < .05, and c: P < .01.