Facets of mindfulness among video game players: A latent profile analysis

This study explores the presence of different profiles of video game players across five mindfulness facets (i.e., describing, observing, nonreacting, nonjudging, and acting with awareness) and nonattachment (i.e., the ability to relate to experiences without clinging onto them).

Adults who play video games (N = 629) were recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Participants completed an online survey, assessing their dispositional mindfulness and nonattachment, problem video gaming, emotion-based impulsivity, psychological inflexibility, and mental health.

The latent profile analysis identified four profiles, representing those who were highly mindful (n = 131; 20.8%), moderately mindful (n = 289; 46.0%), reactive and attached (n = 132; 21.0%), and judgmental and unaware (n = 77; 12.2%). Subsequent comparisons revealed that the judgmental and unaware profile reported the highest level of problem gaming, followed by the reactive and attached profile. The judgmental and unaware profile evidenced stronger general gaming motivations and higher emotion-based impulsivity; in contrast, the reactive and attached profile demonstrated greater psychological inflexibility and escapism motivation relative to the other profiles. Both the judgmental and unaware and the reactive and attached profiles had elevated levels of anxiety and depression.

These findings provide a more nuanced assessment of the protective role of mindfulness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).