Interrelationships of contextual factors, personal factors and gaming behaviour among adolescents in Malaysia
The inclusion of Internet Gaming Disorder as a potential psychiatric condition in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders had invited much research on problematic gaming behaviour. Past studies had consistently highlighted the significant role of parent-adol...
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Format: | Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2021
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/104568/1/FEM%202022%207%20IR.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/104568/ |
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Summary: | The inclusion of Internet Gaming Disorder as a potential psychiatric condition in
the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders had
invited much research on problematic gaming behaviour. Past studies had
consistently highlighted the significant role of parent-adolescent relationship in
predicting problematic gaming behaviour among adolescents. However, other
contextual factors and personal factors were not taken into account. Hence, it is
the aim of this study to (i) describe contextual factors (mother-adolescent
relationship, father-adolescent relationship, school engagement, and peer
relationship), personal factors (gaming self-esteem beliefs, time spent gaming,
and gaming motives), and problematic gaming behaviour among adolescents,
(ii) determine the relationships between contextual factors, personal factors, and
problematic gaming behaviour of the respondents, (iii) determine the factors that
uniquely predict problematic gaming behaviour among the respondents, and (iv)
examine whether the relationships between contextual, personal factors, and
problematic gaming behaviour are mediated by gaming motives.
A total of 710 adolescents were invited to participate in the current study. The
final sample consists of 595 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years old
(mean = 15.36, SD = 1.27). They were located in four districts in Selangor,
namely Gombak, Hulu Langat, Klang, and Petaling Perdana. The respondents
were requested to complete a set of self-report questionnaire, which include
respondents’ background, Problem Videogame Playing Scale (Tejeiro &
Bersabé, 2002), the revisited version of Inventory for Parent and Peer (Armsden
& Greenberg, 1987), School Engagement Scale (Fredricks et al., 2005), Index
of Peer Relation Scale (Hudson et al., 1990), Gaming Self-Esteem Beliefs
Subscale from the Internet Gaming Cognition Scale (King & Delfabbro, 2016),
and Online Gaming Motivation Scale (Yee et al., 2012). Following the recommendation by Jackson et al. (2009), all hypothesized models
were tested using chi-square (χ2), non-normed fit index (TLI), comparative fit
index (CFI), root mean square error of estimation (RMSEA), and relative chisquare
(χ2/df).
Descriptive analysis revealed that more than half of the adolescents reported
moderate level of mother-adolescent relationship, moderate level of fatheradolescent
relationship, moderate level of peer relationship, moderate level of
school engagement, moderate level of gaming self-esteem beliefs, moderate
level of gaming motives, and low level of problematic gaming behaviour.
Pearson correlation analysis revealed that mother-adolescent relationship,
father-adolescent relationship, peer relationship, gaming self-esteem beliefs,
time spent gaming, and gaming motives significantly correlate with problematic
gaming behaviour, but no significant relationship was found between school
engagement and problematic gaming behaviour. However, mother-adolescent
relationship, father-adolescent relationship, school engagement, and peer
relationship did not significantly predict problematic gaming behaviour when all
variables were simultaneously accounted for.
Structural equation modelling revealed gaming motives fully mediates the
relationship between school engagement and problematic gaming behaviour.
Additionally, gaming motives also partially mediate the relationship between
gaming self-esteem beliefs, time spent gaming, and problematic gaming
behaviour. The current finding highlights the significant role of gaming motives
in predicting problematic gaming behaviour among adolescents. Contrary to the
traditional compulsive view of problematic gaming behaviour, the current study
suggests that adolescents play games for a reason. More precisely, adolescents
who engage in school, reported high gaming self-esteem beliefs, and spent
longer time playing games are motivated to play games. Practically, parents,
educators, and social workers should be aware that adolescents are being
motivated to play games. |
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