What is the role of somatic symptoms in the relationship between depression and problematic videogame use?

In the last decade there has been a growing concern about dysfunctional use of technologies including Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) a condition that requires further research before its consideration as a formal disorder in the DSM-5. Adolescents are more likely to exhibit risk-taking behaviors and difficulties in emotion regulation. The association between IGD and mental health has been explored across a range of studies. However, few studies have been conducted to examine the relation between IGD and somatic symptoms in adolescence. The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of somatic symptoms in the relationship between depressive symptomatology and problematic videogame use in a non clinical adolescent population. 333 adolescents (42.6% males; mean age=13.21 ± 1.57 years) were recruited from three secondary public schools in the central area of Italy. Children Depression Inventory 2 (CDI-2), Children’s Somatization Inventory 24 (CSI-24) and Videogame Dependency Scale (CSAS) were used for assessing the study variables. To test our hypothesis mediation analysis was carried out by SPSS macro PROCESS (model 4). Findings indicated a significant correlation between CDI-2 and CSAS total scores (r=0.164, p<.01) as well as between CDI-2 and CSI-24 (r=0.286, p<.001). Additionally, a significant association between CSI-24 and CSAS was observed (r=0.136, p<.05). Mediation analysis highlighted that somatic symptoms significantly mediated the effect of depression on problematic videogame use (estimate of the total indirect effect = 0.070, Bootstrap SE= 0.027, 5000 bootstrap samples [95%C.I.= 0.03 to 0.13]). Findings supports our hypothesis that adolescents with somatic and depressive symptoms are more likely to be problematic videogame users. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings for promoting preventive health interventions, especially in school setting.