Psychosocial outcomes of Esports players in Portugal

Abstract

Esports is the term used to describe organized and competitive videogaming, meaning“electronic sports”. This study focused on the psychosocial characterization anddescription of Esports players in Portugal. Specifically, the main objectives were tocharacterize the motivations, feelings and experience of these practitioners, while at thesame time measure their perceived stress, psychological wellbeing and socialconnectedness levels. Being the first study on Esports Psychology in Portugal, anexploratory, mixed-method approach was chosen, to gather as much data as possibleabout the population. A sociodemographic questionnaire and a specific questionnairewith questions about Esports was used, as well as three different psychologicalinstruments for the three principal variables in study: the Perceived Stress Scale, theFlourishing Scale and the Social Connectedness Scale-Revised. The results go in linewith the international literature, with participants having a moderate-high level ofperceived stress, high levels of social connectedness and high levels of psychologicalwellbeing. Both high levels of social connectedness and lower levels of perceived stresspredicted participants’ psychological wellbeing, explaining 60.9% of its variance,something that goes in line with the answers given on the qualitative questions and theliterature. A thematic analysis was made to these answers on Esports, revealing theperceptions about the advantages, disadvantages, and motivations that this practiceentails, with participants reporting their friends and social groups, the playing itself andthe competitive aspects as the most rewarding parts of participating in Esportscompetitions. Limitations and suggestions for future research are pointed, such asbroader experimental studies, with a bigger sample size and different variables.

Date of Award	16 Nov 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rita Francisco (Supervisor)