Abstract:

Today, the use of technology and the interest in technology-based games are very important for school-age children. This study seeks to use a Structural Equation Model (SEM) to examine the mediating role of difficulties in emotion regulation in the relationship between parental pressure for greater academic performance and gaming addiction in high school students. Additionally, this study endeavors to investigate gaming addiction, difficulties in regulating emotions, and parental pressure for greater academic performance through diverse variables. Using multistage cluster sampling to select participants from the universe, the study sample consists of 627 high school students aged 14-17 studying in various districts within the province of Istanbul, Turkey. The data for this study were collected using the Personal Information Form, the Gaming Addiction Scale for Adolescents, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, and the Parental Pressure and Support for Greater Academic Performance Scale. An Independent Samples t-Test, an ANOVA, Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation, and a Path Analysis were used to analyze the study’s data. After analysis of the SEM constructed for this study, we found that parental pressure for greater academic performance had a very high, direct effect on gaming addiction, that this effect decreased after including difficulties in emotion regulation as a mediating variable, and that parental pressure for greater academic performance had a low, indirect effect on gaming addiction through difficulties in emotion regulation. The results of the SEM analyses show that the fit indices of the model in question were within acceptable limits and that the model accounted for 21% of the total variance of gaming addiction.

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