An investigation of the impact of digital game addiction levels on the self-perception of students aged 9 to 14

There is a general consensus that every type of addiction has negative physical and psychological effects on people. Digital game addiction is also one of the addiction types. This addiction type has emerged in the last 20-30 years with the development of technology and is increasing rapidly every day. Children's digital game addiction also negatively affects their physical and psychological development. One of these effects is on their self-perception. This study aimed to examine the effect of digital game addiction levels on the self-perception of students aged 9-14. The research was designed as a qualitative research. The universe of the research was students at the secondary school level in schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education in Istanbul, and the sample consisted of 359 students in these schools. The data of the research was collected through face-to-face interviews using the survey method. Demographic Information Form, Computer Game Addiction Scale for Children and Self-Perception Scale for Children were used in the collection of data. The data was analyzed using the SPSS 22 package program. As a result of the research, it was determined that male students had higher digital game addiction than female students, and there was no significant difference in terms of age groups, number of siblings and parental cohabitation. In addition, while no effect of mother's education status could be determined, a significant difference was determined in terms of father's education status. It was determined that there were significant relationships between game playing time and self-perception, and that there were negative relationships in self-perception and its sub-dimensions with increasing game playing time. As a result of the findings obtained from the research, considering that children's digital game addiction can negatively affect the psychosocial development of individuals due to its relationship with their self-perception, we believe that it would be appropriate to direct individuals to different activities.