Affiliation:
1. Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida, India
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to identify the risk factors that predict online gaming addiction based on psychological factors. A sample of 150 respondents, who play online games or played in the past, were the respondents. Structured questionnaire is used to understand gaming behavior and other psychological factors. The following factors were found to be a predictor of online gaming addiction: emotional dependence, social withdrawal, detachment from other activities, and long hours spent playing games. Confirmatory factors analysis was used to identify critical factors and discriminant analysis was used to classify respondents as active and non-active online gamer based on their level of addiction and time spent in playing. The result shows a significant gap in the perception of active and non-active gamers with respect to the above-mentioned factors. The study brings valuable insights to medical practitioners and researchers in the context of defining problematic gaming behaviour.