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Investigation of the Online Game Addiction Level, Sociodemographic Characteristics and Social Anxiety as Risk Factors for Online Game Addiction in Middle School Students

Community Mental Health Journal volume 56, pages 830–838 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the online game addiction (OGA) level and the risk factors involved in OGA among middle school students. The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at seven middle schools in the province of Istanbul. The data were collected with a questionnaire, the Computer Game Addiction Scale for Children (CGASC) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Children (SASC); 1174 students who played online computer games were included in the study. It was found that 5.7% of the sample group were addictive users, that 44% were problematic users and that an older age, a higher level of social anxiety (SA), having a mother who is employed, having parents who completed high school or a higher level of education, and the time spent on the computer are risk factors for OGA.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the students and school administrators to help in the data collection phase of participating in this study. We consent to our name on the manuscript; and we would like to share with you this study.

Funding

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatry Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Science, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Semra Karaca & Gul Unsal Barlas

  2. Midwifery Department, Faculty of Health Science, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Ayse Karakoc

  3. Maternity Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Science, Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Ozlem Can Gurkan

  4. Nursing Department, High School of Health, Karabuk University, Karbuk, Turkey

    Nevin Onan

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  1. Semra Karaca
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  2. Ayse Karakoc
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  3. Ozlem Can Gurkan
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  5. Gul Unsal Barlas
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Contributions

S.K. and A.K. contributed in design and writing; S.K., A.K., O.C.K., N.O. and G.U.B contributed in data collection and/or processing and literature search; S.K., A.K, and O.C.K. contributed in analysis and/or interpretation. We guarantee that any author has contributed significantly to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Semra Karaca.

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Karaca, S., Karakoc, A., Can Gurkan, O. et al. Investigation of the Online Game Addiction Level, Sociodemographic Characteristics and Social Anxiety as Risk Factors for Online Game Addiction in Middle School Students. Community Ment Health J 56, 830–838 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-019-00544-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-019-00544-z

Keywords

  • Student
  • Risk factors
  • Online game addiction
  • Social anxiety