The role of experiential avoidance, belongingness and psychological well-being in predicting digital gaming addiction of university students

The aim of this study is to examine the roles of gender, experiential avoidance, belongingness and psychological well-being in predicting university students' digital game addiction. Additionally, it was examined whether the scores of digital game addiction differed significantly in terms of the variables of the place where the majority of his/her life passed, the place where he/she lived, the class level, the technological tool he/she played, the period he/she started playing games, the frequency of playing games and the duration of staying in the game. The quantitative descriptive research model was used for this study. The sample of the study consisted of 392 undergraduate students, 217 female and 175 male, who agreed to participate in the study and stated that they played digital games. "Personal Information Form", "Digital Game Addiction Scale for niversity Students", "Acceptance and Action Form II", "Belonging Scale" and "Psychological Well-Being Scale" were used as data collection tools. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 26 package program. Pearson orrelation Analysis, Multiple Linear Regression, Independent Sample T-Test, and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used for the analysis of the data. Results indicated that the digital game addiction scores of the university students differed significantly with reference to the technological device they use for playing digital games, the time when they first started digital games digital game playing, the frequency of playing the game and the investigated the time spent playing on a daily basis. Digital game addiction scores of students who use computers and tablets when playing games were found to be significantly higher than those who use phones, game consoles, PS, X-box, etc. It was determined that the digital game addiction scores of the students who started playing digital games earlier, had a high frequency of playing games and had a high daily stay in the game were significantly higher than the other students. According to the results of the regression analysis, it was determined that the model including the variables of gender, experiential avoidance, belongingness and psychological well-being statistically significantly predicted the digital game addiction scores of university students and explained 14.4% of the total variance of digital game addiction. It was concluded that gender and experiential avoidance scores significantly predicted digital game addiction scores, while belongingness and psychological well-being scores did not significantly predict digital game addiction. Keywords: Digital game addiction, experiential avoidance, belongingness, psychological well-being, university students.