PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ONLINE GAMING ON ADOLESCENTS: A QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF ADDICTION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This paper examines the video game addiction in adolescents over the Internet. The growth of online gaming, especially mobile gaming platforms has made teens more vulnerable to the behavioural and psychological consequences of excessive gaming. In the study, a quantitative survey was conducted on 110 adolescent students, who were of different educational backgrounds, with the majority of them ranging between 13 and 18 to study aspects of gaming time, platform of choice, gaming motivation and parental supervision. Frequency distributions, correlation, and regression as examples of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were used to evaluate the psychological, social and academic impacts of online gaming. The findings revealed that most teenagers played games on gaming mainly due to entertainment and relieving stress with mobile phones being the most common device. The regression analysis indicated that emotional reliance on gaming and engagement in peer-based gameplay were important predictors of problematic gaming behaviour. Additionally, it was revealed that excessive gaming is correlated with problems such as sleeping disturbances, lack of academic improvement and social complaints towards family members. These results indicate that the role of parents is strongly related to decreasing the level of addiction to online gaming through their awareness, supervision and discussion. It is instead about the need to have a strategic parental involvement and specific educational campaigns to develop healthy gaming habits in adolescents.