Problematic Video Game Use among Teenagers in Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract

Playing video games is now a major leisurely pursuit among adolescents in many parts of the world [1-3]. Initially, playing is not pathological but it becomes so for some individuals when the activity becomes dysfunctional. Internet gaming disorder has been included in the emerging measures and models section of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual [4,5] as a subject of further empirical enquiry. The terms used to describe problematic video game use (PVU) vary across the research literature [5]. Data from various countries around the world suggest that between 0.2% to 15.5% of the adolescents are engaged in PVU [6-10]. A summary of prevalence studies found that there was a higher prevalence of problematic video gaming in East Asian populations, compared to Western European, North American and Australian populations [11].