Examining the effect of digital game playing status on digital game playing addiction

This study aims to investigate the effect of digital game playing motivation on digital game addiction among secondary school students in the Ahlat district of Bitlis province. The sample size, determined using convenience sampling, consists of 432 students, representing the study population with a 95% confidence interval and a 0.05 error rate. The research group consisted of 218 female (50.5%) and 214 male (49.5%) students aged 12-15. The correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. The data collection tools used were the 'Personal Information Form,' the 'Digital Game Playing Motivation Scale,' and the 'Digital Game Addiction Scale for Children.' To determine the tests to be used in the analysis of the data, the skewness and kurtosis values were examined and, since they were within the range of -1 to +1, it was assumed that the data set was normally distributed. Accordingly, parametric tests were preferred. In line with the purpose of the study, descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage distribution, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation were applied to the collected data using the SPSS software package. Subsequently, the 'Independent Samples T-Test' was used for comparisons involving two groups. When the number of groups was more than two, the 'One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)' was used. To determine the source of the difference, the 'Tukey HSD' multiple comparison test was applied. Additionally, a Pearson Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship between students' digital game playing status and digital game addiction. Furthermore, a Linear Regression Analysis was used to determine the direction and level of the relationship between middle school students' digital game playing status and digital game addiction. Significance was accepted at p<0.05. According to the results obtained, significant differences were found in the variables of gender, grade level, perceived economic status, digital game playing device, thinking about something else while playing digital games, understanding how time passes while playing digital games, whether your mind stays on digital games even while studying, and daily digital game playing time. no significant differences were found in the educational levels of mothers and fathers. However, a significant relationship was found between digital game playing motivation and the average scores obtained from the digital game addiction scale for children. Additionally, the predictor variable was considered as the digital game playing motivation scale and its sub-dimensions, while the predicted variable was determined as the digital game addiction scale for children. It was determined that the digital game playing motivation scale positively and strongly predicted the digital game addiction scale for children with its success and stimulation sub-dimension and curiosity and social acceptance sub-dimension; while it was found to negatively and moderately predict the digital game addiction scale with its uncertainty sub-dimension. In conclusion, it was found that digital game playing motivation has a significant effect on children's digital game addiction. In particular, factors such as success and social acceptance were found to increase addiction, while uncertainty in game desire was found to decrease addiction.