The investigation of the relationship between digital game addiction, behavioral-emotional difficulties and negative cognitive errors among middle school students

Adolescence is a period in which a person develops and changes emotionally, cognitively, socially and physically and in this period many ups and downs are experienced. In addition to the many changes adolescents have undergone, today, with the widespread use of digital games, there have been some changes in the lives of adolescents compared to the past. Cognitive behavioral therapy is based on the fact that the cognitive, behavioral and emotional structures of the person interact and affect each other (Beck, 1979). From this point of view, the changes that people experience both in their inner world and in their outer world can cause certain effects. It is known that the effects mentioned are not only an emotional-behavioral problem, but also prosocial behavior. It is believed that digital gaming behavior, which is particularly common today and has become a major sales industry in the late 1980 years (Keepers, 1989), is one of the affected. Computer games constitute an important part of adolescents' relationships with computers (Durdu, Tüfekçi, & Çağıltay, 2005). Considering the environments that digital games offer to the players, the created fantasy world and the fact that the world can be changed as desired, that some behaviors that cannot be done in the real world can be done in the computer environment and that they have a wide range of influence make these games the most preferred entertainment tool (İnal and Kiraz, 2008). Digital game addiction is a behavior addiction situation that causes social or emotional problems in children due to factors such as not being able to stop playing games for a long time, associating the game with their real lives, neglecting their responsibilities due to the game, and preferring the game to other activities (Grüsser and Thalemann, 2006; Lemmens, Valkenburg et al. Peter, 2009; Thalemann, 2010; Horzum, 2011). In this respect, it affects the daily life, thoughts and even behaviors of young people. In terms of cognitive behaviorists, after the successes achieved in studies with adults, many studies were conducted for children and adolescents, and treatment was sought for negative emotional, behavioral and cognitive structures that occur in people. With this tendency, the treatment of problems such as anxiety, depression, and social anxiety has been successfully carried out for adults, children and adolescents, using cognitive behavioral therapy method (Aydın, 2008;, Dattilio, Freeman ve Reinecke, 2017). From this perspective, it is important to know the negative cognitive structures behind or causing the behavior of adolescents for digital gaming dependence. Cognitive errors represent certain distortions in one's mindset and disasters in adolescents or children, over generalization, personalization and selection. In all of this, computer gaming behavior can cause emotional-behavioral problems, but emotional-behavioral problems alone are also affecting the behavior itself. In this study, the relationship between computer game addiction levels and emotional-behavioral problems and negative cognitive errors was examined in secondary school students. It has been investigated whether or not the levels of digital gaming dependence of emotional-behavioral problems and negative cognitive errors in secondary school students have been exhausted. The differences of these relationships according to gender, the relationship between play time and game types variables and digital game addiction levels were examined. At the same time, confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the "Negative Cognitive Errors Scale for Children" used in the study. Relational survey model was used in order to describe a given situation as fully and carefully as possible (Büyüköztürk et al., 2012) and to determine the existence and degree of variation between two or more variables (Karasar, 2007). The population of the research consists of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students in secondary schools in the central districts located within the borders of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and studying in 2019-2020. It was carried out by selecting a sample from this determined universe, and the gradual sampling method was used in the selection of the sample with the level of representation of the universe. The sample of the study consists of 739 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students attending secondary school in İzmir province. In the research, t-test analysis, pearson correlation analysis and multi-stage regression were performed by using SPSS 23 package program to analyze the data showing the relationship between digital game addiction of secondary school students, emotional-behavioral problems and negative cognitive errors variables. The confirmatory factor analysis of the Negative Cognitive Errors Scale for Children, which was used in the same study, was performed using the Amos program. As a result of the data obtained from the study, a statistically significant difference was found between digital game addiction and emotional-behavioral problems and negative cognitive errors in middle school students. It was determined that the aforementioned variables predicted digital game addiction, respectively, by students' behavioral problems, negative cognitive errors, emotional problems, attention deficit, peer problems and negatively related prosocial behaviors. Given the gender difference in this relationship, it has been achieved that girls' secondary school students are experiencing the levels of digital gaming addiction, respectively, behavioral problems, negative cognitive errors, emotional problems, lack of attention and peer problems. It has been determined that male secondary school students are experiencing the levels of digital gaming dependence, respectively, behavioral problems, emotional problems, negative cognitive errors and lack of attention. Students have found that their digital game dependency scores have changed significantly according to their game types. This means action/adventure, simulation, strategy/war, role-playing, students who play their games have higher game dependency scores than instructors and gamers who never play. For female students, those who play action / adventure games get higher digital game addiction scores than those who play educational games, and for male students, the average score obtained for students who do not prefer to play games at all, for students who play action / adventure, strategy / war and role-playing games. In the study, it was found that the variable of playing time was highly correlated with digital game addiction. In terms of gender differences, over an hour of play for female students has increased their digital game dependency scores, while points for male students who have never played games have positive meaningful relationships between levels of digital game dependence and those who have played 0-4 hours of games. The findings were discussed in the light of the literature and suggestions were presented to both researchers and experts working in the field of mental health. Keywords: Adolescent, digital game addiction, emotional-behavirol problems, negative cognitive errors.