Investigation of the Online Game Addiction Level, Sociodemographic Characteristics and Social Anxiety as Risk Factors for Online Game Addiction in Middle School Students
Keywords
Student
Risk factors
Online game addiction
Social anxiety
Publication details
| Year: | 2020 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10597-019-00544-z |
| Issued: | 2020 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 56 |
| Issue: | 5 |
| Start Page: | 830 |
| End Page: | 838 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Karaca S.; Karakoc A.; Can Gurkan O.; Onan N.; Unsal Barlas G. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | Community Mental Health Journal |
| Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| Topics: | Wellbeing |
| Sample: | The sample universe of the study consisted of approximately 9800 students who were receiving education at these schools. The schools to be included in the study were chosen by the random selection sampling method from the middle schools operating under the Ministry of National Education, and the students who were enrolled at the schools during the period of the study and volunteered to participate were recruited and comprised the research sample. In this study, according to a power analysis, with a ratio of dependency of 60%, a type I error rate of 0.05, and an effect size of d = 0.03, the required sample size was calculated to be 1151 students. A total of 1248 volunteer students were recruited to participate in the study. The data forms of 94 students were incomplete due to mistakes or omissions; the final analysis was carried out with the data from 1174 students |
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the online game addiction (OGA) level and the risk factors involved in OGA among middle school students. The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at seven middle schools in the province of Istanbul. The data were collected with a questionnaire, the Computer Game Addiction Scale for Children (CGASC) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC); 1174 students who played online computer games were included in the study. It was found that 5.7% of the sample group were addictive users, that 44% were problematic users and that an older age, a higher level of social anxiety (SA), having a mother who is employed, having parents who completed high school or a higher level of education, and the time spent on the computer are risk factors for OGA.
Outcome
The mean age of the participants in the study was 12.86 ± 1.16 years (min.: 10 years, max.: 15 years). All of the students (100%; n = 1174) had an electronic device at home on which they could play computer games. Of the students, 68.2% owned a personal computer, and 89.7% of the sample group had an internet connection at home. The average time the respondents spent on the computer per day was 3.29 ± 2.97 h. According to the cut-off points for the CGASC, 5.7% of the sample group were addictive users, 44% were problematic users and 50.3% were normal users.
It was found that having a personal computer was a risk factor only for problematic gaming (PG), older age and having an employed mother were risk factors for only OGA. In addition, having a parent who completed high school or a higher level of education, in the time spent on the computer and high SA means were risk factors for both PG and OGA.