Rethinking Gaming Disorder Prevention: A Socio-Ecological Model Based on Practitioner Insights

TL;DR

This study proposes a new framework for preventing gaming disorder in adolescents by integrating insights from practitioners into a socio-ecological model.

Contribution

The paper introduces a socio-ecological model for gaming disorder prevention based on practitioner insights, highlighting multi-level barriers and opportunities.

Findings

Current prevention efforts are fragmented and hindered by unstable funding and limited practical tools.

A socio-ecological model reveals how policy, institutional, community, and interpersonal factors interact in gaming disorder prevention.

Parental disengagement and limited self-insight are key challenges, while resilience and offline activities offer protection.

Abstract

Public health relevance—How does this work relate to a public health issue?
Problematic gaming in adolescents is associated with mental health symptoms, sleep disruption, academic difficulties, and increased pressure on families and care services.Despite these concrete public health impacts, current prevention efforts remain fragmented and insufficiently embedded in existing youth and mental health systems. Prevention is hindered by specific gaps, such as unclear policy responsibilities, limited public awareness, and a lack of accessible guidance for parents, schools and frontline workers, underlining the need for coordinated action.

Problematic gaming in adolescents is associated with mental health symptoms, sleep disruption, academic difficulties, and increased pressure on families and care services.

Despite these concrete public health impacts, current prevention efforts remain fragmented and insufficiently embedded in existing youth and mental health systems. Prevention is hindered by specific gaps, such as unclear policy responsibilities, limited public awareness, and a lack of accessible guidance for parents, schools and frontline workers, underlining the need for coordinated action.

Public health significance—Why is this work of significance to public health?
Drawing on in-depth interviews with prevention and early-intervention professionals, the study reveals structural barriers, including unstable funding, limited access to usable evidence, a shortage of practical tools, and difficulties engaging families with elevated risk. These barriers constrain effective early prevention across educational, clinical, and community settings.By organizing these barriers within a socio-ecological public health framework, the study clarifies how policy, institutional, community, and interpersonal factors interact, and identifies where improvements are most urgently needed to better support young people and their families.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with prevention and early-intervention professionals, the study reveals structural barriers, including unstable funding, limited access to usable evidence, a shortage of practical tools, and difficulties engaging families with elevated risk. These barriers constrain effective early prevention across educational, clinical, and community settings.

By organizing these barriers within a socio-ecological public health framework, the study clarifies how policy, institutional, community, and interpersonal factors interact, and identifies where improvements are most urgently needed to better support young people and their families.

Public health implications—What are the key implications or messages for practitioners, policy makers and/or researchers in public health?
Policy makers should develop a coherent, long-term and sustainably funded multi-level, cross-sector prevention strategy that embeds gaming within broader digital well-being and youth mental health agendas, with clearly allocated responsibilities, stable budgets, and structural collaboration between education, youth care, mental health, and digital policy domains.Practitioners and researchers should co-create and evaluate evidence-informed, low-threshold tools and supports for institutions and families, using implementation science to strengthen adoption, adaptation and long-term sustainability in routine services and to better engage diverse youth and family populations.

Policy makers should develop a coherent, long-term and sustainably funded multi-level, cross-sector prevention strategy that embeds gaming within broader digital well-being and youth mental health agendas, with clearly allocated responsibilities, stable budgets, and structural collaboration between education, youth care, mental health, and digital policy domains.

Practitioners and researchers should co-create and evaluate evidence-informed, low-threshold tools and supports for institutions and families, using implementation science to strengthen adoption, adaptation and long-term sustainability in routine services and to better engage diverse youth and family populations.

Current approaches to gaming disorder prevention remain comparatively narrow, and prevention efforts are frequently underdeveloped and fragmented. Using the socio-ecological model (SEM), this qualitative study mapped frontline practitioners’ perceived obstacles and opportunities to develop a multi-level, practice-grounded framework for policy and implementation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 prevention professionals in Flanders (Dutch-speaking Belgium), recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. A hybrid inductive–deductive analysis—iterative coding guided by Layder’s adaptive theory—organized findings across SEM levels. At the public policy level, participants highlighted insufficient sustainable funding but saw potential in coordinated frameworks moving prevention beyond substance-focused agendas. At the community level, a clear knowledge gap emerged, with opportunities in integrating gaming within broader digital well-being efforts. Institutionally, the absence of practical tools and clear referral pathways was noted, in addition to high participation barriers, whereas accessible programs with targeted outreach were viewed as promising. Interpersonally, parental disengagement was common, but early involvement and pedagogical guidance were seen as key levers. At the intrapersonal level, limited self-insight and emotion regulation impeded change, while resilience, self-confidence, and offline activities were protective. This first empirical application of the SEM to gaming disorder prevention highlights the need for a multi-level, context-sensitive framework that bridges public health and digital media perspectives.

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