ABSTRACT

Background: It is thought that one of the factors affecting the loneliness of the students is the level of digital game playing.

Aim: This study aimed to examine the effect of the digital game playing level of secondary school students on loneliness.

Methods: The universe of the research consisted of 753 secondary school students. The sample consisted of high school students studying in the state schools of Aydın province. Digital Game Addiction (DGA-7) Scale developed by Lemmens et al. (2009) adapted to Turkish by Irmak et al was used. In the third part, The Ucla Loneliness Scale developed by Russel, Peplau and Ferguson (1978) and adapted into Turkish by Demir (1989) was used as data collection tools. In terms of statistics, frequency, percentage and reliability coefficient calculations were performed. Moreover, Pearson Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between digital game addiction and loneliness of the participants, and Manova analysis was used to examine the digital game addiction and loneliness levels of the participants in terms of variables.

Results: While the digital game playing level of secondary school students was low, their level of loneliness was found to be moderate, and it was determined that there was a significant and negative difference between digital game addiction and loneliness. A statistically significant difference was found between the levels of Digital Game Addiction (DGA7) and the variable of gender, presence of digital devices, and daily digital game playing status. However, it was concluded that there was a statistically significant difference between the perceived loneliness levels of the participants and their gender, age, income status, and availability of digital devices.

Conclusion: Since students who own digital devices and spend a lot of time with them had high levels of game addiction and perceived loneliness, it was recommended to minimize the contact of students with digital platforms and create environments where they can socialize more.

Keywords: Digital Game, Loneliness, Secondary Education Students.