Neurodiversity and mental health in esports

Both neurodiversity and mental health have become increasingly prominent topics in esports. Nevertheless, little is known about the mental health of neurodivergent esports players specifically.

The current study, therefore, examined whether neurotype-related differences in mental health outcomes (well-being, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance) differed across self-reported competitive tiers through a secondary analysis of a large-scale, international, cross-sectional survey.

A total of 1,075 esports players across competitive tiers and game titles completed the survey, of whom 402 (37.39%) identified as neurodivergent. The analyses showed a main effect of neurotype for well-being and sleep disturbance, a main effect of competitive tier for all mental health outcomes, and an interaction effect for depression and anxiety. Simple comparisons showed that low-tier neurodivergent players exhibited the least favourable mental health profile, reporting lower well-being, higher depressive and anxiety symptoms, and greater sleep disturbance relative to their neurotypical counterparts. In contrast, high-tier neurodivergent players reported comparatively fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms than their high-tier neurotypical counterparts, despite continuing to report lower well-being and greater sleep disturbance.

Neurodivergence seems to be a salient dimension of esports participation. A substantial proportion of players in the current sample self-identified as neurodivergent, and competitive-tier based analyses indicated that the mental health profile associated with neurodivergence was not uniform across the competitive pathway. Future research should include longitudinal designs to clarify relationships between neurotype, mental health, and progression/drop-out across competitive levels, adopt more fine-grained approaches in describing and identifying neurodivergence, and capture lived experiences of neurodivergent players.