Investigaiton of the relationship between digital game addiction and aggression, self-control and social anxiety in university students

Digital games are in the field of interest of many people, from children to young people. For many years, games have started to move to individual spaces and digital environments with the effect of technological developments and urbanization. Individuals play digital games for many different purposes. Some people play digital games to have fun, to spend their spare time, to relax, while others play to feel a sense of competition, to gain material and moral gain, and to avoid various negative life events. When the literature is examined, it is possible to see that studies on digital games and digital game addiction are generally done on middle school and high school students. Studies evaluating digital game addiction on young adults and adults are limited. In this study, university students were studied and the relationship between aggression, self-control and social anxiety with digital game addiction has examined. In the research, "Demographic Information Form", "Digital Gaming Addiction Scale", "Buss-Perry Aggression Scale" and "Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale" were used. The scales were applied to 311 university students, but 295 people were included in the analysis due to the exclusion criterion. Pearson Correlation Analysis, T-Test in Independent Groups and Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were applied to analyze the collected data. As a result of the study, it was seen that digital game addiction differs significantly according to gender and daily game playing time. In addition, it was found that aggression significantly predicts digital game addiction and explains a 27% variance in digital game addiction. It was found that Repetitive self-control which is sub-dimension of self-control and aggression, together explain about 30% variance in digital game addiction. Also, it was seen that Restorative self-control which is sub-dimension of self-control, explains 32% variance in digital game addiction, together with Repetitive self-control and Aggression, which are sub-dimensions of self-control. It was concluded that the Experiential self-control which is sub-dimension of self-control and social anxiety did not significantly predict digital game addiction.