This exploratory study examined the relationship between Twitch.tv usage and personality organization among 1,079 French-speaking emerging adults (ages 18–29). Using Kernberg’s model, the participants were categorized into four clusters based on their Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) scores: normal, neurotic, borderline, and psychotic. Twitch usage was analyzed across multiple dimensions, including time spent on the platform, financial investment, interaction patterns, preferences for channel size and streamer gender, and motivations for usage. The findings suggest that individuals with lower levels of identity integration exhibit more frequent, immersive, and emotionally driven engagement with the platform. Furthermore, socio-demographic factors, particularly employment and educational status, significantly moderated these patterns. Economically inactive and unemployed participants were overrepresented in the most impaired personality clusters and exhibited higher levels of platform involvement. These results suggest that Twitch.tv may function as a psychologically meaningful environment that offers opportunities for social connection and identity-related processes among vulnerable youth who are navigating the transition to adulthood.

This exploratory study examined the relationship between Twitch.tv usage and personality organization among 1,079 French-speaking emerging adults (ages 18–29). Using Kernberg’s model, the participants were categorized into four clusters based on their Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) scores: normal, neurotic, borderline, and psychotic. Twitch usage was analyzed across multiple dimensions, including time spent on the platform, financial investment, interaction patterns, preferences for channel size and streamer gender, and motivations for usage. The findings suggest that individuals with lower levels of identity integration exhibit more frequent, immersive, and emotionally driven engagement with the platform. Furthermore, socio-demographic factors, particularly employment and educational status, significantly moderated these patterns. Economically inactive and unemployed participants were overrepresented in the most impaired personality clusters and exhibited higher levels of platform involvement. These results suggest that Twitch.tv may function as a psychologically meaningful environment that offers opportunities for social connection and identity-related processes among vulnerable youth who are navigating the transition to adulthood.