ESports is a typical sportification form of human-computer interaction.

Similar to traditional
sport, gender stereotype threat exists in eSports and causes a significant gender imbalance in the
eSports industry. Taking Chinese eSports as an example, female participants account for only
24.3%. Although emerging mobile eSports attract more and more female participants, eSports
are still typically male-dominated and are full of negative stereotypes of females, such as that
male players are more competent. Therefore, female players often receive less positive
comments and experience discrimination in eSports. Females are considered to have a lower skill
level and require more protection, and hypersexualized female avatars make male players
associate female players with sex, and this has a negative impact. Furthermore, discrimination
causes female players to experience greater oppression in the game, forcing them to withdraw
from eSports.

It would seem that gender stereotypes discourage female participation in eSports. Therefore,
female players sometimes attempt to dispel gender stereotypes by gender-swapping. A few initial
studies have found that gender-swapping impacts females’ gaming psychology and experience,
including both online and offline behaviors. However, the relationship between gender-swapping
and females’ continuous participation intention in eSports is little discussed.

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between gender-swapping, self-efficacy, and
females’ continuous participation intention in eSports in a sample of Chinese female college
students. A moderated mediation model was tested, in which self-efficacy mediated the
relationship between gender-swapping and continuous participation intention in eSports, and
discrimination moderated the relationship between gender-swapping and self-efficacy and the
mediation effect of self-efficacy.

Reference: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/sp/2020/8818588/?
fbclid=IwAR2oOjtxbyZjjFrunmpNKVKOKEmhati7R9vjEOtxeFk9Ks8PAchm68Fpsdc

The latest China Internet Network Information Center's (CNNIC) report revealed that the growth
rate of mobile online games has reached 9.6% and adolescents are the main user group. In
comparison with most segments of society, adolescents are more vulnerable to Internet-related
addiction because of their psychological and developmental characteristics, the easy access to the
Internet with a portable device, and the positive expectation of mobile gaming . It has been
demonstrated that video game addicts suffered poorer mental health and cognitive functioning,
and increased emotional difficulties, such as enhanced depression and anxiety, as well as more
social isolation.

Reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6743417/?fbclid=IwAR2mGLzZbcWdVqMYo-
yO6sUeSEoIJGiMRYCfxKWaQl7gOB0m62AeeDyiBq4
My most notable results included women reporting that first-person shooters contain the most
harassment and that it is not uncommon for other women to be the harassers. Stereotypes seemed
prevalent in their eyes; while some shrugged off harassment and stereotypes, others experienced
frustration and sadness. Some women considered actions harmless flirtation, while others viewed
it as sexual harassment. Because of the results, I decided to broaden my topic to include the
overall experiences of women who game from their perspective. I desired to better understand
the choices women make in gameplay and why (such as character choice). I sought to understand
the diversity of their experiences, including their interpretation and response to such. This would
allow me to understand how they respond to harassment, and if they see games empowering in
any way. Further, videogame design and videogame play varies by genre. As much research
focuses on RPG games, I decided to focus on women’s experiences with first-person shooter
videogames, where women are less represented and appear to face more harassment.

Reference:
https://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1429&context=honors_theses

The world of sports provides a fertile arena for addressing questions of hegemony in the form of
male dominance and power and the maintenance of that power over women (Grindstaff & West,
2011). Like the sports industry, the eSports industry has largely been organized by and for men,
resulting in a highly masculine institution (Witkowski, 2013; Ruvalcaba et al.,2018). The
development and categories of eSports games also tend to align with what are traditionally
considered masculine activities, such as first-person shooters and sport simulation games
(Paaßen et al., 2017). The limited number of women players on the eSports scene has resulted in
assumptions that women do not play as often, are less skilled, prefer less competitive formats
and features, and ultimately cannot compete at the same level as male players due to inherent
gender disparities (Shen et al., 2016). However, this perception has proven to be false (Taylor,
2012; Shen et al., 2016). Rather, the differences between men and women eSports players are
caused by other aspects – experiences, cultural assumptions, and other conditions that discourage
or prevent women’s involvement (Shen et al., 2016).

Reference:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16138171.2021.1930941?
fbclid=IwAR23kXlXx7nL5B730H8DZTbVPXjOjeMGHruxs7jkSWRMvZEE_2lq7vccIAs

Previous research has found that children of dual-career parents who work long hours generally
spend a great amount of time watching TV after school, using the internet, and playing online
game. Compared to adults, adolescents in particular are more likely to be addicted to online
games as they consist of content that can stimulate curiosity and competition. Ultimately,
adolescents’ addiction to online games has been shown to have a major impact on their lives. In
particular, adolescents addicted to online games tend to exhibit behaviors related to juvenile
delinquency, such as drinking and smoking, and tend to hang out with friends who are also
addicted.
Reference:
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2850

The growing interest in video gaming and eSports has also resulted in some significant
downsides. Due to the potentially addictive characteristics of excessive gaming, the World
Health Organization (WHO) came to include gaming disorder as a diagnosable disorder in the
11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2018 (World Health Organization,
2020). Further issues with video gaming include the large amounts of sitting and screen time
associated with the activity (Twenge and Campbell, 2018; DiFrancisco-Donoghue et al., 2019).
Sitting and screen time are already recognized as risk factors for numerous chronic diseases
(Biswas et al., 2015; Patterson et al., 2018; Bailey et al., 2019) and all-cause mortality (Chau et
al., 2013; Biswas et al., 2015; Rezende et al., 2016; Patterson et al., 2018). Sitting (Lissak, 2018)
and screen time (Reid Chassiakos et al., 2016; Akçay and Akçay, 2018) also show negative
impacts on sleep behavior. While a sedentary lifestyle can lead to sleep disturbances and
insomnia (Yang et al., 2017), the blue light emission of screens can influence the circadian
rhythm (Hatori et al., 2017), which results in poor sleeping patterns and impoverished health-
related quality of life (Mireku et al., 2019). Moreover, prolonged screen time is associated with
poor stress regulation (Lissak, 2018), which is additionally a reason for poor sleep (Âkerstedt,
2006). On the positive side, playing video games can also contribute to relaxation (Hoffman and
Nadelson, 2009), reduce stress and improve mood (Russoniello et al., 2009).

One question is whether screen-based video gaming and eSports have a negative impact on
players' health and sleep per se. In order to provide specific health promotion to the target group,
collecting data about the current situation of video game and eSports players in terms of health
behavior and health status is pivotal. Hence, the aim of this exploratory study is to investigate the
media usage, sleep behavior, stress and wellbeing of video game and eSports players and its
association with health.

Reference:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2022.665604/full