The Effect of Awareness Level on Digital Game Addiction

Abstract

Digital gaming is the key activity that young people prefer, especially to fulfill several responsibilities that are given to players with technology today and to give them an advantage over those who are competing against them. In this study, mindfulness of digital game addiction of secondary school students was investigated according to their gender, age group, grade level, high school type, education status of the mother, daily technology exposure time, and regular physical activity status. 456 female and 329 male secondary school students who study in the Pursaklar district of Ankara province participated in the study, during the 2020–2021 academic period. As the data collection tools “Personal Information Form” and “Mindfulness of Digital Game Addiction Scale (MDGAS)” that was developed by Tekkurşun-Demir and Cicioğlu (2020) were used. t-test and one-way ANOVA multi-comparison tests were used in the analysis of data from secondary school students participating in the study. Research found significant differences in gender, class level, and daily technology exposure time of secondary school students, while a significant difference was not detected concerning age group, high school type, education status of the mother, and regular physical activity status variables. It was determined that the levels of awareness, internal awareness levels, and external awareness of secondary school students' digital gaming dependency are at a moderate level.