Katz, JoelLewinson, Rebecca Elizabeth2024-11-072024-11-072024-07-102024-11-07https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42438The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant changes in the way people interacted, functioned, and coped with life stressors (Restubog et al., 2020; Rettie & Daniels, 2021). With government guidelines, uncertainty, and isolation, individuals sought new coping methods, including video games (Entertainment Software Association, 2020; King et al., 2020; López-Cabarcos et al., 2020). This coping strategy may have been particularly prevalent among individuals with emotional vulnerabilities (i.e., symptoms of depression and anxiety), or personality traits such as anxiety sensitivity or hopelessness. As such, there is a need to better understand how emotional vulnerability relates to coping-motivated gaming during the pandemic. This dissertation presents two longitudinal studies exploring emotional vulnerability, gaming behaviours, and coping motivations for gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first study involved 332 Canadian gamers (Mage= 33.79, SDage=8.92; 60.8% male, 39.2% female) and examined the influence of emotional vulnerability on coping-motivated gaming and gaming-related problems during the first six months of the pandemic (April – October 2020). The results supported the hypotheses, that higher levels of emotional vulnerability predicted excessive time spent gaming and gaming-related problems, with coping motives playing a mediating role. The second study, conducted between July 2021 and January 2022, involved 1001 American gamers (Mage= 38.43, SDage= 12.11; 46.8% male, 53.2% female) and aimed to understand how internalizing personality traits, namely anxiety sensitivity and hopelessness influenced video gaming engagement. There was an observed predictive relationship between anxiety sensitivity and subsequent time spent gaming, through coping motives. Overall, these studies provide valuable insights into emotional vulnerability, gaming behaviours, and coping motives during the pandemic. They emphasize the importance of coping motives in these relationships and offer an opportunity to explore how symptoms of depression or anxiety and related personality traits, may influence the use of gaming during the pandemic.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Clinical psychologyPsychologyMental healthElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2024-11-07GamingVideo gameVideo gamesVideo gamingGamersCopingCOVID-19PandemicProblematic gamingAnxietyDepressionHopelessnessAnxiety sensitivityNegative thinkingMental health