Investigation of the Relationship Between Children's Digital Game Addictions and Spatial Reasoning Skills

This study aims to examine children's digital game addiction and spatial reasoning skills in terms of various variables and to determine the relationship between them. The participants of this descriptive and correlational study consist of 318 students from 4th and 5th grades attending primary and secondary schools in the central districts of Diyarbakır province, selected through a simple random sampling method. Data were collected using the "Digital Game Addiction Scale for Children" and the "Spatial Reasoning Test." In the analysis of the data, an independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. The study found that male students had significantly higher levels of digital game addiction and spatial orientation compared to female students, 5th-grade students had significantly higher levels of digital game addiction than 4th-grade students, and students attending private schools had significantly higher spatial reasoning skills compared to those in public schools. Furthermore, it was revealed that children of parents with higher education levels had lower digital game addiction and significantly higher spatial reasoning skills compared to children of parents with lower education levels. Additionally, it was found that students with generally lower mathematics grades had higher digital game addiction and lower spatial reasoning skills compared to students with higher grades. On the other hand, a low, negative, and significant relationship was found between students' digital game addiction and spatial reasoning skills.