Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Compulsive Internet Gaming and Its Relationship with Poor Psychological Well-Being Among Selected Adolescents

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the past few years, empirical studies have indicated that compulsive internet gaming can negatively influence one’s psychological well-being. To date, the World Health Organization recognizes individuals who have internet gaming disorder as having a mental health condition. As current global statistics on internet usage show an increasing number of heavy users among adolescents in India, this study aims to examine the relationship between internet gaming and psychological well-being among this segment of young people deemed by studies to be vulnerable to addiction and are largely exposed to the Internet. A correlation study between internet gaming and psychological well-being among 456 sampled adolescents from India was carried out for this research given no evidence exists in the literature on similar research. The Internet gaming disorder (IGDS9-SF) and Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being (PWB) scales were used to gather the needed data for this research. Result of the use of the Pearson correlation coefficient yielded a very strong negative correlation at − .771 between internet gaming disorder and psychological health suggesting the influence of poor psychological well-being to compulsive internet gaming. This study pointing to the emerging issue on IGD as a significant health concern calls for the development of an effective intervention program aimed at improving the psychological well-being of adolescents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) (4th ed., rev.). Washington, DC: Author.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: Author.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Castellaci, F., & Tveito, V. (2018). Internet use and well-being: a survey and a theoretical framework. Research Policy, 47(1), 308–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, R. A. (2001). A cognitive behavior model of pathological internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 17, 187–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faust, K., & Prochaska, J. (2018). Internet gaming disorder: a sign of the times or time for our attention? Addictive Behaviors, 77, 272–274.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fuster, H., Carbonell, X., Pontes, H. M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2016). Spanish validation of the internet gaming disorder-20 (IGD-20) test. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, 215–224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.050.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gentile, D. A., Choo, H., Liau, A., Sim, T., Li, D., Fung, D., & Khoo, A. (2010). Pathological video game use among youths: a two-year longitudinal study. Pediatrics, 127, e319–e329. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2010-1353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzales-Bueso V., Santamaria J., Fernandez D., Merino L., Montero E., Jimenez-Murcia S., del Pino-Gutierrez A., & Ribas, J. (2018). Internet gaming disorder in adolescents. Personality, psychopathology and evaluation. Clinical and Health Psychology.

  • Hawi, N., Samaha, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2018). Internet gaming disorder in Lebanon: relationships with age, sleep habits and academic achievement. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(1), 70–78. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.7.2018.16.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • International Trade Union. (2017, July 31). ITU releases 2017 global information and communication technology facts and figures. Retrieved from http://news.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2018.

  • Ko, C.-H. (2014). Internet gaming disorder. Current Addiction Reports, 1(3), 177–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-014-0030-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2012). Online gaming addiction in children and adolescents: a review of empirical research. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 1(1), 3–22. https://doi.org/10.1556/JBA.1.2012.1.1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Pontes, H. M. (2017a). DSM-5 diagnosis of internet gaming disorder: some ways forward in overcoming issues and concerns in the gaming studies field. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(2), 133–141. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.6.2017.032.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., & Pontes, H. M. (2017b). Chaos and confusion in DSM-5 diagnosis of IGD: issues, concerns and recommendations for clarity in the field. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(2), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.5.2016.062.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lehenbauer-Baum, M., & Fohringer, M. (2015). Towards classification criteria for internet gaming disorder: debunking differences between addiction and high engagement in a German sample of World of Warcraft players. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 354–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehenbauer-Baum, M., Klaps, A., Kovacovsky, Z., Witzmann, K., Zahlbruckner, R., & Stetina, B. U. (2015). Addiction and engagement - an explorative study toward classification criteria for internet gaming disorder. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 18(6), 343–349.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muller, K., Janikian, M., Dreier, M., Wolfling, K., Beutel, M., Tzavara, C., Richardson, C., & Tsitsika, A. (2015). Regular gaming behavior and internet gaming disorder in European adolescents: results from a cross-national representative survey of prevalence, predictors, and psychopathological correlates. European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 24(5), 565–574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-014-0611-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pontes, H. M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2015). Measuring DSM-5 internet gaming disorder: development and validation of a short psychometric scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 137–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pontes, H. M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2016). Portuguese validation of the internet gaming disorder scale-short-form. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 19(4), 288–293.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rehbein, F., Kliem, S., Baier, D., Moble, T., & Petry, N. M. (2015). Prevalence of internet gaming disorder in German adolescents: diagnosis contribution of the nine DSM-5 criteria in a state-wide representative sample. Addiction, 110(5), 842–851. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.12849.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The structure of psychological well-being revisited. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 69, 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soh, P. C., Chew, K. W., Koay, K. Y., & Ang, P. H. (2018). Parents vs peers influence on teenagers’ internet addiction and risky online activities. Telematics and Informatics, 35(1), 225–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subramaniam, M., Abdin E., Chua B. Y., Pang S., Satghare P., … Picco, L. (2016). Prevalence and correlates of internet gaming problem among internet users. Results from an internet survey. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, 45(5), 174–183.

  • Wittek, C. T., Finsera, T. R., Pallesen, S., Mentzoni, R. A., Hanss, D., Griffiths, M. D., & Molde, H. (2015). Prevalence and predictors of video game addiction: a study based on a national representative sample of gamers. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 14(5), 672–686. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-015-9592-8.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (2018a). International classification of diseases. Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http://id.who.int/icd/entity/1448597234. Accessed 5 September 2018.

  • World Health Organization. (2018b). Adolescent development. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/topics/adolescence/development/en/. Accessed 19 July 2018.

  • Yeh, D.-Y., & Cheng, C.-H. (2016). Relationships among Taiwanese children’s computer game use, academic achievement and parental governing approach. Research in Education, 95(1), 44–60. https://doi.org/10.7227/RIE.0025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines

    Georgekutty Kuriala Kochuchakkalackal & Marc Eric S. Reyes

Authors
  1. Georgekutty Kuriala Kochuchakkalackal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marc Eric S. Reyes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Georgekutty Kuriala Kochuchakkalackal.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kochuchakkalackal, G.K., Reyes, M.E.S. Compulsive Internet Gaming and Its Relationship with Poor Psychological Well-Being Among Selected Adolescents. J. technol. behav. sci. 4, 303–308 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00098-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-019-00098-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation