Relationship Between Health and Gaming in Human Life Course: International and Longitudinal ORE Study

The qualitatively oriented ORE dataset is an outcome of an ERC-funded project “Ontological Reconstruction of Gaming Disorder” (2022–2027). The project aims at building a multicultural understanding of how people play videogames in different intensive ways.

Specifically, the study seeks to explain and identify those ways, which relate to some players seeking clinical treatment for their gaming. The study and data collection take place primarily in three countries: Finland, South Korea, and Slovakia. More than 100 experts and assistants have been involved in generating and processing the dataset.

Participants

The ORE dataset has a “3-3-3” structure: three groups of people are studied over three years in three countries. The three studied groups are:

  1. people who have experienced clinically significant problems with videogame playing and sought treatment for it,
  2. people who play competitive (and other) videogames for more than 4h per day but do experience clinically significant problems, and
  3. 12-14 year olds (at the start of the study) who play videogames for at least 2h per day.

The data are being collected in Finland, Slovakia and South Korea between 2022-2027. Participants have joined the study at different times, which means that some of them conclude their participation already in 2025 while some not before 2027.

The project uses a duplication method, which means that participants are recruited from other countries as well with the help of collaborators. These data from other countries will either be integrated to regional datasets (when nearby primary study countries) or archived as separate duplication datasets (when far from primary countries).

Data types

The dataset is primarily qualitative, but some quantitatively classifiable psychometric data are involved as well. Each data type and subtype is listed below.

Interviews

  • Initial interviews: these are short ~20-30 minute interviews, which were carried out with all adolescent participants at the start of the study.
  • Clinical interviews: carried out annually with all adults and selected adolescents by a formal clinical professional (e.g. psychiatrist) and they last ~60-120 minutes.
  • Gaming interviews:

Phenomenology of Play (POP): these are longer ~90-240 minute interviews, which were carried with all adults on the first year and for selected adolescents on the second year.

Phenomenology of Play Follow-Up (POP-UP): similar to POP but with a focus on changes, carried out a year after POP is completed.

Customised gaming interview: one year after POP-UP, a customised interview is carried out for each participant based on analyses of their previous data, lasting ~60-90 minutes.

Diaries

  • Gaming logs: all participants are asked to report their gaming for a duration of one week (three times per year).
  • Open diary questions: customised items where participants can share their thoughts about relevant topics (three times per year).

Psychometric scales

Several measures of health, wellbeing, and psychological functioning in general (three times per year).

Panel data

Clinical experts discuss the topic of gaming-related health based on the data in both local and international compositions (approximately 10 panels annually in each country).

Archived data

All data are available both in original lanuage (Finnish, Korean, Slovak) and English. Translations have been carried out by professionals, but anyone interpretating the data based on the translations is highly encouraged to involve cultural experts in analysis.

Datasets available through the Finnish Social Science Data Archive will be added to Aila as they are processed for reuse.

Organisation and funding

The project has been funded by the European Union (ERC, ORE, 101042052). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The project is hosted by University of Jyväskylä in collaboration with Yonsei University and Slovak Academy of Science.

Availability

The data include both anonymous and pseudonymous participants. Pseudonymity means that researchers still hold personal identifiers of participants, who are therefore possible to identify by the research team but not anyone else. It is necessary to maintain personal identifiers when data generation is still ongoing or if participants opt-in to be available for follow-up contacting later.

Individuals who have registered as Aila users may submit data access applications for pseudonymised datasets archived in the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD). Registration as an Aila user relies on the HAKA authentication system, which is available to researchers affiliated with Finnish universities and higher education institutions. Researchers from foreign universities can apply for an Aila user account through the FSD’s customer service.

In the data access application, the user must describe the intended purpose of use, provide their contact information, and agree to the general terms and conditions of data use. The FSD forwards the application to the responsible researcher of the ORE project. If necessary, the responsible researcher may request additional information or provide further instructions directly to the applicant.

If the ORE project grants the data access permission, the FSD delivers the pseudonymised dataset to the applicant via Aila. If the application is rejected, the FSD informs the applicant of the decision along with the reasons for the rejection.

Due to the pseudonymous nature of the data, access for reuse needs to be applied with scientifically valid reasons or research plan. Any reasonable scientific reuse is highly encouraged and will be supported in principle. However, access will not be provided only to satisfy curiousity for exploratory purposes. The PI of the project can be contacted to better understand the nature of the dataset and discuss any questions.

People who use the ORE dataset for new publications do not need involve anyone from the original ORE team as co-authors, but the datasets should be cited appropriately.