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. 2022 Apr 13:13:837315.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837315. eCollection 2022.

No Significant Changes in Addictive and Problematic Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Related Lockdowns: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Mónika Koós  1   2 , Zsolt Demetrovics  2   3 , Mark D Griffiths  4 , Beáta Bőthe  5
Affiliations

No Significant Changes in Addictive and Problematic Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Related Lockdowns: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Mónika Koós et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak and related lockdowns brought substantial changes in people's lives and led to concerns about possible increases of addictive behaviors at the initial stages of the pandemic. To examine these concerns, the aim of the present study was to assess longitudinal changes in addictive and problematic behaviors (i.e., problematic social media use, Internet gaming disorder, gambling disorder, problematic pornography use, and compulsive sexual behavior disorder) over time during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Three waves of data collection took place in different stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in Hungary in a general population, from the first wave of lockdowns to the second and third waves of restrictions (May, 2020; N T1 = 1747; June-August, 2020; N T2 = 656; January, 2021; N T3 = 411). Latent growth curve models were calculated to assess the potential changes in addictive and problematic behaviors over time.

Results: Latent growth curve models showed that the sample varied in their initial scores, but there were no significant changes over time in any of the examined behaviors, except for compulsive sexual behavior disorder, which demonstrated a small but significant increase (i.e., positive and significant slope factor). However, the rate of this change was negligible. Overall, there were no noteworthy changes over time regarding any of the examined addictive and problematic behaviors.

Conclusion: Contrary to initial concerns, no substantial changes over time were observed regarding the examined addictive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdowns. These findings indicate that those who had no previous problem with these addictive behaviors, might have not developed a problem, and those who had problem with either of the behaviors previously, might have not experienced a significant increase in their symptoms.

Keywords: COVID-19; Internet gaming disorder; addictive behaviors; compulsive sexual behavior disorder; gambling disorder; longitudinal; problematic pornography use; problematic social media use.

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Conflict of interest statement

Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) receives funding from the Szerencsejáték Ltd. to maintain a telephone helpline service for problematic gambling. ZD has also been involved in research on responsible gambling funded by Szerencsejáték Ltd. and the Gambling Supervision Board and provided educational materials for the Szerencsejáték Ltd.’s responsible gambling program. The University of Gibraltar receives funding from the Gibraltar Gambling Care Foundation. However, these funding are not related to this study and the funding institution had no role in the study design or the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the article for publication. MG’s university currently receives research funding from Norsk Tipping (the gambling operator owned by the Norwegian Government). MG has also received funding for a number of research projects in the area of gambling education for young people, social responsibility in gambling and gambling treatment from Gamble Aware (formerly the Responsible Gambling Trust), a charitable body which funds its research program based on donations from the gambling industry. MG regularly undertakes consultancy for various gaming companies in the area of social responsibility in gambling. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Visual representation of the problematic behaviors over time. X-axis values should be interpreted as follows: T1 = May 2020, T2 = July–August 2020, T3 = January 2021.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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