INVESTIGATION OF DIGITAL GAME ADDICTION OF CHILDREN PLAYING DIGITAL GAME IN TERMS OF VARIOUS VARIABLES

Abstract

Today, rapidly-developing technology affects an individual’s life in many fields and it is also effective
\non games which are the basic need of children. Digital games do not only affect the children’s life
\naffirmatively, they also cause lots of negativities. One of these negativities is the digital game addiction.
\nEspecially, in puberty, when children experience social and emotional stressful period, children’s becoming a
\ngame addicted can affect their development negatively. From this perspective, determination of factors which
\nare influential in children’s becoming digital game addicted can provide resources for experts and next studies.
\nAim of this study is to detect whether some variables are influential on the digital game addiction level of
\nchildren who play digital game and study in secondary school. In the study quantitative research method and
\ncriterion sampling which is one of the study group sampling methods were used. The study involves 134
\nstudents who study in two different secondary schools in Erzincan and play digital games. In order to
\ndetermine the demographic characteristics of the children, General Information Form developed by the
\nresearcher was applied and also Digital Game Addiction Scale which was developed by Hazar and Hazar
\n(2017) was employed to determine the digital game addiction level of the children. As a result of the study it
\nwas found that age and mother’s playing digital game variables had an influence on the digital game addiction
\nlevel of children but other variables; gender, number of sibling, educational background of father and mother,
\nfather’s playing digital game and type of digital game were not influential on digital game addiction level of
\nchildren.