Comparing functional impairments related to social network use disorder and internet gaming disorder

The current study aimed to analyze impairments in daily life functioning (DLF) in vocational students with Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Social Network Use Disorder (SNUD). While diagnostic requirement for IGD has been defined and the functionally impairing nature has been demonstrated, SNUD is a relatively new phenomenon with less evidence.

A diagnostic interview (n = 937) was conducted in a sample of students, of which 279 met the adapted DSM-5 criteria, with 70 reporting social networking and 29 gaming as their main activity. For screening, the Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS) was used and the Internet Use Disorder - Criterion-based Assessment Tool (I-CAT) served as diagnostic measure. Impairment was assessed using a subset of items taken from the WHO Disability Scale.

In a prior analysis, overall impairments in DLF among students with and without IUD were compared, indicating higher impairments for the IUD-group. In our study, the DSM-5 criteria appear to be appropriate to differentiate between pathological (IUD-group) and healthy internet users (non-IUD group) in terms of DLF. Odds Ratios ranged between 0.597 and 1.340 for impairments in DLF. When testing for statistical significance despite low statistical power, no differences of DLF were observed between students with IGD and SNUD in logistic regression analyses.

The results must be regarded as preliminary and might indicate that students with IGD and SNUD show comparable impairments in DLF. However, higher sample sizes could have led to different results which needs to be investigated in future studies.