The effects of e-sports players' perceived social supports, family climates and adult attachment styles on game addiction

This research was conducted to examine the effect of e-Sports players perceived social support level, family climates and adult attachment styles on game addiction. It is important to protect and maintain the bio-psycho-social health of young people in the e-Sports phenomenon which is seen as a new Professional and entertainment field. In this context, it is important to determine the factors that will lead to problematic game behaviors of e-Sports players and to develop appropriate interventions. In this research which was carried out with quantitative research method and relational screening model. 211 e-Sports players, members of 11 universitys e-Sports communities in Ankara, answered Personel Information Form, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Family Climate Scale, Relationships Scales Quastionnaire and Game Addiction Scale. The data obtained from the participants were analyzed with SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. Whether the datas were homogenously distributed or not, parametric tests were used for homogenously distributed datas and non-parametric tests were used for non-homogeneous datas. It has been seen that the players play almost 2-4 hours almost every day, more than half of them earn income from the game they play and watch of videos associated with games. The motivations of players are to play consists of having fun, spending time, working/earning income in this field, throwing stress/getting away from problems, competing, loving to play, socializing, playing as a habit, experiencing a sense of success. The vast majority of players have problematic playing behavior. Gamer-type players scored higher on the Game Addiction Scale than progamer-type players. Players who played games longer and frequently, watched videos longer scored higher on the Game Addiction Scale than players who played games less and watched videos less. The players who have low perceived social support, have no positive family climate, and do not have a secure attachment style scored high on the Game Addiction Scale. It has been found that adult addiction styles predict play addiction of the players, but their family climate and perceived social support are not predictive.