The relationship between online game playing addiction levels, childhood traumas and dissociation in young adults with massively multiplayer online game addiction

The developing technology brought new habits and addictions along with many innovations that made our lives easier. In recent years, social media addiction and online game addiction are also frequently mentioned, under the title of internet addiction. Understanding the underlying causes and motivations of these addictions is crucial for the treatment of addiction. The research sample consists of 334 Turkish literate online video game players between the ages of 18-40. The sociodemographic information and online game playing habits of the participants were gathered with the questionary developed by the researcher, via 'Qualtrics Survey'. Internet game addiction levels of participants in the research were determined by 'Internet Game Addiction Scale Short Form (IGDS-SF)', online game motivations 'Online Game Playing Motivations Scale', childhood trauma levels, Childhood Trauma Scale (CTQ-28), the level of dissociative experiences was measured using the 'Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES II)'. The relationships of all scales and the sub-dimensions with internet game addiction were examined. The research is designed as a relational screening model. SPSS 25 program was used in the analysis of the data obtained, and p <0,05 was considered statistically significant in the statistical analysis. According to the results obtained from the research, in young adults with online video game addiction, age and gender are not related to internet game addiction, the time allocated to playing is a predictor of internet game addiction, and childhood traumas and dissociative experiences are related to internet game addiction. It was found that dissociative experiences have a mediating role in the relationship between childhood traumas and online game playing. In young adults with MMORPG addiction, childhood traumas, dissociative experiences and escape motivation are predictors of internet gaming addiction. There have been many studies in online video games recently and online video games contain a wide range. We belıve that our study will make acontribution to the literature, which analyzes the relations between childhood traumas, dissociative experiences and motivations in playing online games, specifically focusıng on the players that play MMORPG.