Relationship Between Digital Game Addiction with Body Mass Index, Academic Achievement, Player Types, Gaming Time: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Digital game addiction was classified as a disease by the World Health Organization. It is characterized by impaired control over gaming and increasing priority given to gaming over other activities. Especially for school-age children, there are concerns about the effects of gaming addiction on health problems that are difficult to treat later and on their future careers. This study was conducted to analyze the relationship between academic achievement, body mass index and player types and computer game addiction of secondary school students. Study participants included 289 students attending fifth and sixth grades in a public school in Sivas province during the 2018-2019 academic year in Turkey. The data were analyzed with hierarchical regression analysis. The study findings revealed that digital game addiction was significantly predicted by gender, academic achievement score, computer and smartphone gameplay per-week, but not significantly predicted by the body mass index and player type variables. These findings suggest that male students with high weekly gameplay on computers and smartphones were exposed to a high risk of digital game addiction, and digital game addiction negatively affects academic achievements of the students. Future studies could be carried on focusing on the games and the types of games played by the students with similar variables.