Examination of the relationship between digital game addiction and physical activity competence of secondary school students

It is aimed to examine the relationship between digital game addiction and physical activity adequacy of secondary school students in schools affiliated with the national education in Amasya province. In addition to this main purpose, it is also to determine the effects in terms of variables such as school type, class, gender, mother's & father's education status, sports status, undergraduate status, sports year, weekly exercise frequency, digital game playing frequency, daily digital game playing time. The study group consists of a total of 656 students, 282 girls and 374 boys. The data of the study were collected using a personal information form, the "Digital Game Addiction Scale" and the "Physical Activity Competence Scale". Descriptive analyses, independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey Post Hoc analysis to identify the sources of differences, and Pearson correlation analysis were employed to evaluate the data. A statistically significant difference was found between the gender of the students and their digital game addiction levels; the school variable and their digital game addiction levels; the grade level and their physical activity competence levels; the education level of their mothers and their digital game addiction levels; the education level of their fathers and both their physical activity competence levels and digital game addiction levels, and the economic income of their families and both their digital game addiction levels and physical activity competence levels. There is no significant relationship between the digital game addiction levels and physical activity competence levels of students at the secondary school level. As a result; it has been determined that males have higher digital game addiction than females, science high school students have higher digital game addiction than other students, students whose mothers and fathers are university graduates have higher digital game addiction than other students, students who play digital games 6 hours or more per week have higher digital game addiction than other students; 9th grade students have higher physical activity adequacy levels than other students, students who do regular sports have higher physical activity adequacy levels than other students, licensed students have higher physical activity adequacy levels than other students, and those whose family's economic status is 20 000 liras have higher digital game addiction and physical activity adequacy levels than other students. According to the findings, encouraging children to do sports and providing various and suitable environments can reduce the time spent on digital games while improving attitudes towards physical activity, and the Ministry of National Education can launch campaigns targeting secondary schools to emphasize the risks of inactivity, excessive internet use, and digital game addiction. Key Words: Addiction, Digital game, Physical activity.