No convincing evidence for prospective effects between internet gaming disorder and sleep problems: A reanalysis and comment on Peng et al. (2026)

<p>Using results from a cross-lagged panel model, Peng et al. argued that internet gaming disorder (IGD) and sleep problems exert reciprocal longitudinal influences on one another during adolescence. However, statistically significant cross-lagged associations do not necessarily indicate genuine prospective effects and may instead arise as artifacts of the underlying data structure. We fitted several alternative models to data simulated to reproduce the correlation structure reported by Peng et al. The analyses yielded conflicting results, with some models indicating increasing effects and others suggesting decreasing effects between IGD and sleep problems. Furthermore, a model assuming spurious longitudinal associations provided an adequate representation of the data without requiring direct effects between the constructs over time. Consequently, the findings reported by Peng et al. may reflect statistical artifacts rather than true prospective influences. Consistent with multiverse methodology, we recommend evaluating competing models and drawing conclusions from the collective pattern of evidence rather than from a single analytic approach.</p>