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Determinants of internet game addiction and therapeutic role of family leisure participation

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Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 16 June 2015

Abstract

This study aims to quantitatively analyze which variables are critical in determining the level of Internet game addiction (IGA) among the Korean adolescents and investigate the role of family leisure as therapy with interdisciplinary perspectives. The results indicate that some personal and household characteristics, including gender, are significant determinants of the level of IGA, where male adolescents, compared to their female counterparts, are proven to be more prone to the addiction. Nevertheless, a substantial portion of the variation in the level of addiction is not explained by personal or household variables, which implies the importance of adopting interdisciplinary approach such as focusing on the dopamine reward system as intensively investigated in the fields including neurobiology, medicine and psychology. The result also shows that the role of family leisure programs deserves more attention. In cases where the adolescents do participate in leisure activities with their family, the level of IGA seems to decrease, compared to those who do not. This quantitative finding is consistent with the previous findings that exercise and social contact encourage the functions of dopamine receptors, implying the usefulness of the interdisciplinary approaches to deal with IGA problems.

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Compliance with Ethical Standards

The author is grateful to Kyonggi University for its financial support through the Research Grant (No.2014-078) and National Youth Policy Institute of Korea for permission to use its survey data. This paper is the author’s original work and is not under consideration for publication in any other journal, book or any kind of printed matters. Also it has not been printed in any form previously. This research does not involve any human participants and/or animals for experiments. It uses survey data collected with the respondents’ consent, where all the information is treated anonymously and used for research purpose only.

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  1. Department of Sport Management, Kyonggi University, 154-42, Gwanggyosan-ro, Youngtong-gu, Suwon-Si, Gyeonggi-do, 443-760, South Korea

    Sooyoung Sul

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  1. Sooyoung Sul
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Correspondence to Sooyoung Sul.

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Sul, S. Determinants of internet game addiction and therapeutic role of family leisure participation. J Incl Phenom Macrocycl Chem 82, 271–278 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10847-015-0508-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10847-015-0508-9

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