Many parents worry over their children’s gaming habits, but to what extent do such worries match any detrimental effects of excessive gaming? We attempted to answer this question by comparing children of highly concerned parents with other adolescents of the same age. A cohort of parents who identified as highly concerned over their children’s video game habits were recruited for a public study in collaboration with a national television network. Using an online experimental platform in conjunction with surveys of parents’ beliefs and attitudes, we compared their children to age-matched peers in an exploratory case-control study. The scores of children with highly concerned parents on tests of cognitive control (cued task-switching and Iowa Gambling Task) and psychological wellbeing (WHO-5) were statistically similar to controls, suggesting no selective cognitive or psychological detriments from gaming or otherwise in the cases with concerned parents. The case group, however, did spend more time gaming, and scored higher than controls on problem gaming indicators (Gaming Addiction Scale), which also correlated negatively with wellbeing. Within the case group, wellbeing effects seemed mainly to consist in issues of relaxation and sleep, and related to gaming addiction indicators of playing to forget real-world problems, and the feeling of neglecting non-gaming activities. Where most results of research staged for TV never get published, making it difficult to interpret both methods and results, this paper describes findings and participant recruitment in detail. The relationship between parental concern and children’s gaming is discussed, as is the merits and challenges of research conducted with media, such as TV programs and their recruited on-screen participants.

Project Overview This study used a community-based participatory approach to identify and investigate the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Dublin, Ireland. The project had several stages: A systematic review on health disparities amongst people experiencing homelessness in the Republic of Ireland; Observation and interviews with homeless attendees of a community health clinic; and Interviews with community experts (CEs) conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 on ongoing work and gaps in the research/health service response. This data deposit stems from stage 3, the community expert interview aspect of this project. Stage 1 of the project has been published (Ingram et al., 2023.) and associated data are available here. De-identified field note data from stage 2 of the project are planned for sharing upon completion of analysis, in January 2024. Data and Data Collection Overview A purposive, criterion-i sampling strategy (Palinkas et al., 2015) – where selected interviewees meet a predetermined criterion of importance – was used to identify professionals working in homeless health and/or addiction services in Dublin, stratified by occupation type. Potential CEs were identified through an internet search of homeless health and addiction services in Dublin. Interviewed CEs were invited to recommend colleagues they felt would have relevant perspectives on community health needs, expanding the sample via snowball strategy. Interview questions were based on World Health Organization Community Health Needs Assessment guidelines (Rowe at al., 2001). Semi-structured interviews were conducted between September 2022 and March 2023 utilising ZOOM™, the phone, or in person according to participant preference. Carolyn Ingram, who has formal qualitative research training, served as the interviewer. CEs were presented with an information sheet and gave audio recorded, informed oral consent – considered appropriate for remote research conducted with non-vulnerable adult participants – in the full knowledge that interviews would be audio recorded, transcribed, and de-identified, as approved by the researchers’ institutional Human Research Ethics Committee (LS-E-125-Ingram-Perrotta-Exemption). Interviewees also gave permission for de-identified transcripts to be shared in a qualitative data archive. Shared Data Organization 16 de-identified transcripts from the CE interviews are being published. Three participants from the total sample (N=19) did not consent to data archival. The transcript from each interviewee is named based on the type of work the interviewee performs, with individuals in the same type of work being differentiated by numbers. The full set of professional categories is as follows: Addiction Services Government Homeless Health Services Hospital Psychotherapist Researcher Social Care Any changes or removal of words or phrases for de-identification purposes are flagged by including [brackets] and italics. The documentation files included in this data project are the consent form and the interview guide used for the study, this data narrative and an administrative README file. References Ingram C, Buggy C, Elabbasy D, Perrotta C. (2023) “Homelessness and health-related outcomes in the Republic of Ireland: a systematic review, meta-analysis and evidence map.” Journal of Public Health (Berl). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01934-0 Palinkas LA, Horwitz SM, Green CA, Wisdom JP, Duan N, Hoagwood K. (2015) “Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research.” Administration and Policy in Mental Health. Sep;42(5):533–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y Rowe A, McClelland A, Billingham K, Carey L. (2001) “Community health needs assessment: an introductory guide for the family health nurse in Europe” [Internet]. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/108440