Making Sense of Gaming During Attempts to Change
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Making Sense of Gaming During Attempts to Change: A Qualitative Study of Adults Navigating Gaming-Related Difficulties
IRAS ID
369807
Contact name
Ander Aizpuru Hofmann
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
City St George’s, University of London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Video gaming is a common and meaningful part of many adults’ lives, offering enjoyment, connection, challenge, and a sense of achievement. For some, however, gaming can become a source of distress or difficulty, affecting wellbeing, relationships, or everyday functioning. Increasing numbers of adults seek support for gaming-related difficulties through different routes, including specialist NHS services and other support contexts.
Most research in this area has focused on symptoms, diagnosis, or treatment outcomes. While important, this work offers limited insight into how adults themselves understand gaming while they are actively trying to change their relationship with it. Existing qualitative research suggests that gaming is often experienced as both supportive and problematic at the same time, yet how people make sense of this tension during ongoing attempts to change remains poorly understood.
This study aims to explore how adults who have sought support for gaming-related difficulties make sense of gaming during ongoing attempts to change. The focus is on how gaming is understood in the present, including how meanings are held, questioned, revised, or negotiated. The study does not seek to measure outcomes or evaluate services, but to examine lived experience as it is reflected on and navigated.
Participants will be identified primarily through the NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders, which will act as a Participant Identification Centre. If required to support recruitment, and subject to relevant approvals, additional participants may also be recruited through approved non-NHS routes such as online advertisements, community organisations, or other public-facing study materials.
By centring adults’ own perspectives, this research seeks to contribute a clearer and more nuanced understanding of gaming-related difficulties and of how adults navigate complex relationships with gaming while trying to change.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/LO/0361
Date of REC Opinion
13 May 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion