A total of 335 junior high school students (aged 12–15 years) participated in the survey and completed a questionnaire assessing daily online gaming usage, in-game purchases, psychosocial adjustment, and mental distress. This study sought to explore whether knowing the style of in-game purchases (non-purchase, planned purchase, or unplanned purchase) could be useful when characterizing maladaptive behavior among adolescents from the perspective of psychosocial adjustment and mental distress. Although some studies have suggested that excessive in-game purchases increase the risk of psychosocial maladjustment and mental distress as well as predict future problematic gaming and gambling practices, empirical studies on problematic behavioral patterns related to in-game purchasing among adolescents are lacking. In-game purchases, including microtransactions and loot box spending, are the monetization systems of free-to-play online games.
Hiroki Shinkawa 1* Tomonari Irie 2 Masanori Tanaka 3 Kengo Yokomitsu 4
