An investigation of the relationship between the speaking anxieties of secondary school students and their dependencies of digital games, social media and smart phones

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between secondary school students' speech anxieties and their addiction to digital games, social media and smartphones. Within the scope of this purpose, Yeşiltepe, Aydınpınar and Hürriyet Secondary Schools located in the central district of Düzce province formed the universe of the study. Stratified sampling technique and simple random method were used in the selection of schools. The sample consists of 331 students studying in the 8th grade and is thought to represent the universe. This research is in the "Quantitative Method" and was designed in the "Relational Survey Model". The survey application to the 8th grade students of the selected schools was carried out between 22.09.2020 and 20.10.2020. In addition to the personal information form prepared by the researcher in the study, Speech Anxiety Scale (Keşaplı & Çifci, 2017), Digital Game Addiction Scale (Hazar & Hazar, 2017), Social Media Addiction Scale for Adolescents (Özgenel, Canpolat & Ekşi, 2019), Smartphone Addiction Scale - Short Version (Şata and Karip, 2017) was used. Data analysis was done with SPSS 22 program. Whether the measurement tools used in the research were suitable for the normality distribution was evaluated with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test, and the Independent Samples T-Test was used to compare the paired groups for the analysis of the scales, the One-Way Anova Test to compare the averages of more than two groups, and the Spearman Correlation Test to compare the variables with different point values. The relationship between students' speaking anxiety and digital game, social media and smartphone addictions was tried to be determined. Students' speaking anxieties; gender, parental education level, number of digital tools owned, duration of use of digital tools and success variables. As a result of the research, a positive relationship was found between the speaking anxieties of secondary school students and their addiction to digital games, social media and smartphones. It has been concluded that as digital game, social media and smartphone addictions increase, speech anxieties also increase. Keywords: Speech Anxiety, Digital Game Addiction, Social Media Addiction, Smart Phone Addiction