Relationship Between Internet Gaming Disorder and Awareness, Motivation and Emotion Regulation Difficulty

This study aimed to examine the relationship between internet gaming disorder and digital gaming addiction awareness level, internet gaming motivation, and emotion regulation difficulties. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1203 adolescents. Adolescent Information Form, Internet Gaming Disorder Scale- Short Form, Digital Game Playing Motivation Scale, Awareness of Digital Game Addiction Scale, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale- Short Form were used for data collection. Internet gaming disorder has positive relationship with digital gaming motivation and emotion regulation difficulties. Also, internet gaming disorder has a negative relationship with awareness about digital gaming addiction. Motivation and emotion regulation difficulties increased the risk of internet gaming disorder, while awareness levels had no effect. In addition, it was found that the variance of 39.6% in internet gaming disorder was explained by these variables. According to the results of this study, emotion dysregulation and motivations to play digital games, predict internet gaming disorder in adolescents. It is important to provide adolescents with emotion regulation skills. It is necessary to understand the motivational factors that cause adolescents to play digital games and to ensure that adolescents meet their social and emotional needs in healthy ways. Besides these results led to questioning the effect of having information about a pathology on reducing the risky behavior that causes pathology.