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The Effect of Online Game Addiction on Children and Adolescents’ School Success

Supervisor’s Name: Dr.John McAlaney

Faculty of Science and Technology

MSc Foundations of Clinical Psychology

Student’s Name: Nazlım Aybüke Yalçın

Student Number: 5121666

JULY 2019

Word Count: 14934

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Dissertation Declaration

I agree that, should the University wish to retain it for reference purposes, a copy of my dissertation may be held

by Bournemouth University normally for a period of 3 academic years. I understand that once the retention period

has expired my dissertation will be destroyed.

Confidentiality

I confirm that this dissertation does not contain information of a commercial or confidential nature or include

personal information other than that which would normally be in the public domain unless the relevant

permissions have been obtained. In particular any information which identifies a particular individual's religious or

political beliefs, information relating to their health, ethnicity, criminal history or sex life has been anonymised

unless permission has been granted for its publication from the person to whom it relates.

Copyright

The copyright for this dissertation remains with me.

Requests for Information

I agree that this dissertation may be made available as the result of a request for information under the Freedom

of Information Act.

Signed :

Name: Nazlım Aybüke Yalçın

Date: 8 July 2019

Programme: Msc Foundations of Clinical Psychology

Original Work Declaration

This dissertation is my own work, except where stated, in accordance with University regulations.

Signed:
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Acknowledgement
First of all I would like to express special gratitude to my supervisor Dr. John McAlaney for his supports.

It was great privilege and honor to write a dissertation under his guidance.

I am thankful to my family for their endless support and help. Also I would like to thank my friends who

supported me.

Lastly, I am extemely grateful to my parents.But most to my mother, for her love,caring and sacrifices for

educating and preparing me for my future. Also she give me opportunities and experiences that have

made me who I am.I can’t thank her enough, she encouraged me to explore new directions in life. I

dedicate this dissertation to my mother.

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Abstract
While children, young individuals may often be hard to motivate to commit time, energy,

and other resources to academic affairs. Adolescents are none the more different in this regard,

especially when far more interesting alternatives emerge. Online games that are the product of

dynamic modern technologies become too enticing an entertainment type to be ignored.

However, the interaction of many young people with these software products becomes intensive,

so much so that there comes a point when they would skip lessons before they would miss the

chance of plunging into the vibrant, super realistic world of online games. Absenteeism and

excessive game time lead to the procrastination of scholastic tasks, which reduces the probability

of academic success. Different success-enabling factors are affected, including student

engagement that consists in relations among students and between students and the teacher who

struggles to connect with detached gamers who grow increasingly isolationist by forfeiting social

contacts and support that could help them recuperate from the addictive habit and put themselves

back on track in the academic regard. The dissertation examines the studies centered on the

correlation between such principal variables as addiction to online games and scholastic

performance/success. A focus was made on Turkey based studies due to their prevalence in the

recent scientific discourse and an interest in gaming addiction and its effect in a region

characterized by lesser technological penetration.

Keywords: academic, scholastic, success, gamer, student, teacher

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The Table of Contents

1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................4
2. Literature Review........................................................................................................................5
2.1. How Studies Were Compiled................................................................................................5
2.2. Recent Studies on the Academic Effect of Online Game Addiction....................................6
Study 1: Motives and consequences of online game addiction: A scale development study.. 6
Study 2: Relationship among internet addiction, academic motivation, academic
procrastination and school attachment in adolescents............................................................10
Study 3: Video games use among schoolchildren and its impact on the study habits...........13
Study 4: Relationship between internet addiction, gaming addiction, and school engagement
among adolescents..................................................................................................................18
Study 5: The impact of heavy (excessive) video gaming students on peers and teachers in
the school environment: A qualitative study..........................................................................21
2.3. How Studies Compare........................................................................................................25
3. Discussion..................................................................................................................................28
3.1. General Discussion Points..................................................................................................28
3.2. Relation to Other Studies....................................................................................................31
3.3. Literature Gaps/Weaknesses...............................................................................................36
3.4. Recommendations...............................................................................................................38
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................45
References.....................................................................................................................................47
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1. Introduction

Scholastic or academic performance is an essential factor in the lives of young

individuals and the nation overall as it determines how both will fare. Now that the world has

gone increasingly digital, such performance has been put to the test, with games being developed

and made accessible in the internet. This tempts school students of whatever age to test the

attractive products of software developers setting the young audience amazed with the quality of

reality reproduction or ephemeral worlds that materialize the artistic vision of creative

developers. While many students turn out able to balance between online games and education,

some students do not match others in this ability, which leads them to commit more of their time

to online games instead of education. This results in procrastination or the postponement of

academic tasks and the loss of studying motivation, which bids fare to affect the likelihood of

such students securing optimal academic results.

Unfortunately, this addiction falls under the category of gaming disorder that, according

to Lopez-Fernandez (2019), is a pattern of recurrent or persistent gaming conduct (video-gaming

or digital gaming), which may be offline or online. The disorder can present itself through the

escalation or continuation of gaming despite the occurrence of adverse circumstances, a rising

priority given to gaming, such that daily activities and other life interests become marginal, and

impaired control over gaming, including its context, termination, duration, intensity, frequency,

and onset (Lopez-Fernandez, 2019). If the disorder does affect the academic success of many

students, qualified labor may be in short supply that is needed to keep national economies going

to ensure national security and social welfare; therefore, the danger posed to the economy,

society, and national security by excessive gaming is the chief reason for the topic to have been

chosen.

To examine the relationship between addiction to online games and the academic success

of children and adolescents, a sample of empirical studies was put together. The choice fell on
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five articles in the sample for a number of reasons, such as the focus of the dissertation on recent

scientific publications, the idea being to present the most up-to-date state of the research opinion.

This led to the search scope being narrowed down more to studies based in Turkey, which is the

region richly represented in the latest studies. Besides, the country posed an interest to the study,

for it was important to identify the effect of gaming in what is a yet-developing nation with less

sufficient technology penetration, with India chosen for the same reason.

Research question: Does addiction to online games affect the academic performance and

eventual scholastic success of children and adolescents?

Thesis statement: addiction to online games can tell negatively upon the academic

performance and success of students, be they children or adolescents.

2. Literature Review

2.1. How Studies Were Compiled

Being proceeding to the compilation of sources, library research methods were studied

the better to perform the search that would yield recent and reputed empirical studies. Princeton

University Library (2019) offered an excellent insight into library research methods reporting

there to be different approaches, including but not limited to keyword searches, citation searches

in scholarly sources, searchers through published bibliographies, and searches through people.

All of these were applied to varying degrees. Thus, for example, the search through people

sources that implies verbal contacts allowed approaching fellow students and mentors to gain a

better understanding of where it is that one should look for recent studies centered on the

problem in question. This gave the names of two important databases, such as National Center

for Biotechnology Information and the Institute of Education Sciences that were applied in

addition to the Google search engine that helped find the remaining studies. The search via

published bibliographies allowed browsing through bibliographic entries in studies that

contained links to original research articles. Citation searches also proved useful by enabling the

search of original studies via the copied fragments of article contents, which gave access to
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otherwise largely inaccessible studies that were hard to find, since the keyword search often

would not return sought-after results. The keyword search method made the use of extra

techniques like searchers through published bibliographies relevant over its periodic instability

despite diverse keyword variations being used, such as “online game addiction effect on school

success/grades/academic performance” and “effect of online game addiction on children and

adolescents’ school success.”

2.2. Recent Studies on the Academic Effect of Online Game Addiction

Study 1: Motives and consequences of online game addiction: A scale development

study. The following study aimed to design OGAS or the Online Game Addiction Scale, in

addition to studying its properties. The goal was for the researchers to identify if the scale was a

reliable and valid instrument with adequate psychometric properties.

Başol, G., and Kaya, A.B. (2018). Motives and consequences of online game addiction: A scale

development study.

Study sample. Study authors compiled a sample numbering 465 students involving the

residents of Sivas and Corum Provinces based in Central Anatolia interviewed in the 2012-2013

academic year. This notwithstanding, the sample was later reduced to 327 participants due to

questionnaire completion quality issues. Although addicted to gaming to varying degrees, the

young individuals did not fall under the category of diagnosed patients with online game

addiction. Although the sample is not homogenous in gender terms, the two sexes are not

proportionally represented, with 302 and 25 boys and girls respectively selected for the study.

Percentage-wise, the numbers are equivalent to 92% and 8% of boys and girls respectively (see

the assessment of the legitimacy of the gender-based sample composition in the limitation &

weaknesses subchapter). Study sample description offers a more elaborate breakdown of the

school students involved, reporting there to be 55 or 17% of 12th graders, 70 or 21% of 11th

graders, 46 or 14% of 10th graders, and 156 or 48% of 9th graders (Başol and Kaya, 2018).
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Methods. As far as sample assembly methods are concerned, purposive sampling was

applied (Başol & Kaya, 2018), which is understood to imply the purposeful or intentional

selection of participants (Macnee & McCabe, 2008). The shared characteristic justifying the

selection of the current research sample members is, apparently, addiction to online games as

well as their age. Apart from sample assembly methods, the study also does well to list the

approaches to getting its validity verified. A 69-item draft scale was reported to have been

employed for the evaluation of study reliability and validity. Test-retest reliability, Spearman-

Brown split-half reliability, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were applied to evaluate reliability,

while construct validity was subject to assessment via the exploratory factor analysis (Başol &

Kaya, 2018).

Findings. It was found that OGAS or the Online Gaming Addiction Scale was a reliable

and valid instrument with adequate psychometric properties. Since the addiction scale has been

found reliable in terms of addiction diagnostics based on psychological metrics or parameters,

excessive online gaming does lead to psychological health impairment. As such, the diagnostic

tool will be able to gauge the extent of the psychological effects of gaming addiction that is

associated with psychopathological conditions, such as impulsivity, anxiety, depression, and

hyperactivity disorder. Psychological factors are considered the strongest risk factors for online

gaming addiction, as follows from Başol and Kaya (2018). While no apparent link is built by

Başol and Kaya (2018) between adverse psychological effects and academic performance in the

context of the study, the tool found by the researchers to be reliable examines the degree of

psychological impact of excessive gaming that does lead to poor academic performance, as

follows from Colomer, et al. (2017) that confirmed the correlation between

impulsivity/hyperactivity and lower academic achievement and Ruz, Al-Akash, and Jarrah

(2018) who confirmed a role of depression and anxiety in academic achievement reduction and

absenteeism.
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Strengths. The scholars sought to ensure research accuracy and ensure they did, based on

a number of study characteristics, one being that a large number of scales were found valid. To

be more precise, 327 of 465 questionnaire forms qualified as valid based on the quality of their

completion by students. Furthermore, the sample was kept clean in the sense that any ambiguous

elements found themselves dropped. As acknowledged by the researchers, they thought fit to

remove the scale with the excessive number of repetitive, contradictory, and missing answers

from the final data set. The expert opinion of two academicians was sought who studied online

gaming and who consulted the study authors as regards the relevance of rendering individual

items excluded, which led to 34 scale items being removed and the number of items in the final

draft being brought down to 69. Furthermore, the sample size adequacy was measured via

Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) test and confirmed with the value of 0.92, which means that the

sample size was adequate (Başol & Kaya, 2018). Overall, the study features the application of

multiple reliability-measuring tools, which makes for their greater accuracy.

The value of the study and its ability to contribute to the existing knowledge depended

much on the addictive nature of gaming, which the selected students were expected to show.

That many students have provided a definitive answer regarding the number of hours a day they

spend gaming is an accuracy-boosting strength showing that researchers achieved a measure of

precision. Thus, for example, as many as 58% of participants disclosed that they played for

upwards of 2 hours per day; an estimated 46% of those taking part acknowledged they were

gaming for 6 hours running, that is, without putting their activity on hold, whereas a remaining

61% of respondents suggested that it sometimes could be that they played for 4 straight hours.

This is to suggest that research authors proved able to get respondents to specify what could be a

critical study variable in the form of the time committed to online games. When it comes to other

approaches to ensuring proper accuracy, the researchers admittedly abided by the Helsinki

Declarations (Başol & Kaya, 2018) that is a range of ethical principles concerning human

experimentation developed for the medical community (Ng, 2014). By having the study guided
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by the ethical considerations of the document, the study authors kept participation voluntary and

looked to it that interviewees might not have to face personal questions or participation stimuli,

which, undoubtedly, further ensured accuracy, since, when not pressed, respondents tend to

provide well-though-out answers and fill in the whole form, without leaving a question

unanswered. Such accurate answers are key to the production of results that reflect the genuine

gaming addiction status quo rather than a distorted state of affairs delineated by respondents who

are quick to answer if only to make quick work of the questionnaire form.

Limitations & Weaknesses. The study authors reported no limitations encountered in the

course of study performance. This is not to imply that the study is flawless, which it is not due to

there being potential weaknesses, of which one may be its geographic focus. The scholars may

have been wrong to target Turkey as a focus country as it may seem technologically inferior to

many other states. As per Statista (2019), it has 56 million users. Relative to the population data

put at 81,3 million as of 2018 by the CIA (2019), only two thirds are internet users, which is the

share of those exposed to the technology. On the other hand, the country of sample origin cannot

be deemed a weakness, since the technology penetration factor cannot influence the outcome of

the research that is aimed at the identification of how gaming addiction correlates with academic

results displayed by participants rather than the measurement of the proportion of addiction to

online gaming for the subsequent comparison of the result with the ones obtained in other

countries. The same holds good for the size of the sample that is below five hundred subjects.

While a comprehensive, reliable research may be that, which puts together large samples, the

focus of the researchers was to identify the causative-consecutive link between addiction to

online games and academic performance deterioration rather than the addiction scope; still, if

larger, the sample, could indicate more accurately whether the adverse effect is more

characteristic of an individual age or gender.

Unjustifiable can be a weakness consisting in the demographic complexion of the sample.

The study did not pick an equal number of participants in the way of gender, which likely
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demonstrates the failure of researchers to access both genders in equal measure, and which

cannot be justified by the greater prevalence of the male gender in the demographic composition

of Turkey (since the nation enjoys a gender parity, as seen in female society section standing at

50,78% as of 2016 (Trading Economics, 2019) and since genders are rather equally represented

in children and adolescents’ age groups in the Turkish society, with 10,085,558 males and

9,627,967 females in 0-14 age cluster and 6,589,039 males and 6,311,113 females in 15-24 age

group (CIA, 2019)), although it can be by the blockade of females from an access to education

opportunities due to Turkey’s moderate, albeit persistent conservatism and Islam influence.

Demiray (2015) confirmed that the country sat 108th on the 135-country list ranking nations

based on access to education by women. For the researchers to have focused on the male gender

may be down to such a factor as a greater access to computer games determined by social roles

that leave females laden with household chores and offer little room for entertainment. Dedeoglu

(2012) believes the conservative social order in Turkey to have been historically keeping the

gendered division of labor alive, which holds males accountable for the breadwinning function

and females responsible for domestic work (as cited in Kazanoglu, 2019). Still, lesser access to

games cannot justify a very mediocre segment of female students in the sample any more than

the social distribution factor can. Neither has it been found across many reviewed sources that

online games are tailored predominantly to the male audience, with developers catering to both

genders while developing gaming products.

Study 2: Relationship among internet addiction, academic motivation, academic

procrastination and school attachment in adolescents. The goal of the study was to examine

the correlation between the internet (online gaming) addiction of adolescents and school

attachment levels, academic procrastination, and academic motivation.

Demir, Y., and Kutlu, M. (2018). Relationship among internet addiction, academic motivation,

academic procrastination and school attachment in adolescents.

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Study sample. Study sample is composed of high school students residing within the

physical confines of the Elazığ province. An aggregate of 689 students was chosen. The gender

breakdown shows that the sample contains 306 and 383 male and female students, which is

otherwise equivalent to 44,4% and 55,6% of males and females respectively. These students do

not belong to the same age group as 134 or 19,4% are 12th graders, 205 or 29,8% are 11th graders,

169 or 24,5% are 10th graders, and 181 or 24,3% of students are 9th graders. The composition of

the sample based on the addiction extent shows that 41 or 6,6% of students use internet for 7-

plus hours, 65 or 9,4% for 5-6 hours, 199 or 28,9% for 3-4 hours, and 237 or 34,4% for 1-2

hours (Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

Methods. The sampling phase of the study involved the use of the stratified sampling

technique, with the population split into three sublayers based on school types and the

consideration of population characteristics. The measurement of procrastination, motivation, and

addiction required the use of specific approaches, such as School Attachment Scale for children

and adolescents (SAS), Academic Procrastination Scale (APS), Academic Motivation Scale

(AMS), and Young Internet Addiction Test- Short Form (YIAT-SF). AMOS 18.0 and SPSS 21.0

package programs were utilized at the stage of study data analysis. In Amos package program,

the maximum likelihood method was employed. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used

to test the measurement models of school attachment, academic procrastination, academic

motivation, and internet addiction variables at the stage of data analysis (Demir and Kutlu,

2018).

Findings. As a result of the research, it was concluded by Demir and Kutlu (2018) that

internet addiction was a generic addiction that comprised other internet dependencies, including

online gaming and social media addiction types. More specifically, the standardized regression

coefficient between academic motivation and internet addiction was found to be -24, which

demonstrates that internet dependence tends to influence academic motivation in a negative way

and serves as significant and negative predictor of the motivation. The standardized regression
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coefficient between academic procrastination and internet addiction was identified as equal to .

36, which implies that the procrastination is positively influenced by dependence on the internet

that acts as its considerable and positive predictor. Furthermore, the standardized regression

coefficient between school attachment and academic motivation was estimated as .20, which

indicates the positive influence of academic motivation on school attachment. The United States

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009) clarified that school attachment referred to

the conviction by students of school peers and adults caring about them as individuals as well as

their learning (as cited in Furlong, Gilman, & Huebner, 2014). It was further found via the

standardized regression that the coefficient between school attachment and academic

procrastination amounted to -.31, which implies that school attachment is negatively influenced

by academic procrastination.

Strengths. There are no apparent strengths allowing the study to stand out except that,

apart from documenting its findings, Demir and Kutlu (2018) linked them to previous studies

(see the discussion chapter for information on relation to other studies), which allows gaining a

deeper understanding of the research subject through the consultation of earlier researches. This

link does much to add credibility to the study and show readers the mainstream scientific

opinion.

Weaknesses. Only a small segment of the sample includes heavy internet users.

Adolescents using the internet for 7 and 5-6 hours constitute only 6,6% and 9,4% of study

participants respectively (Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Furthermore, it is impossible to tell for certain

how much time is committed to different types of internet activities, since the use of the world

web may involve standard browsing, social media communication, online gaming, and a range of

other activities. Thus, the study is overly generalized in the way of internet activities, in which

young respondents may engage.

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Limitations. Being a cross-sectional study that it is, the research is restricted to a single

period, which may affect the examination of the impact of internet addiction on school

attachment that may best manifest itself when examined over a long period.

Study 3: Video games use among schoolchildren and its impact on the study habits.

The current study looked to examine the prevalence of video game use by schoolchildren along

with the effect it has on their study habits, which can come in the form of mental health problems

(Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018).

Navaneetham, J., and Chandran, J. (2018). Video games use among schoolchildren and its

impact on the study habits.

Sample. To put together the audience of study, Navaneetham and Chandran (2018)

targeted high schools in the city of South Calicut that has an estimated 88 schools that are aided

or otherwise. Two aided non-boarding schools following English medium of instruction were

used for students’ selection, with 8th and 9th graders chosen whose age ranged from 13 to 16

years. A more detailed age-based breakdown shows that there were 0,5%, 4%, 38,5%, and 57%

of those aged 16, 15, 14, and 13 years. Around a fifth of participants or 21% lived in single-child

families, whereas a remaining 79% had younger or elder sibling(s). The researchers saw fit to do

so much as look into the birth order of students involved in the sample, with it being found in the

process that 29% of students were a last child in the family, 11% were middle-born, and 47%

were first-born children. One of the selection criteria was the ability to read and write in English.

The initial sample composed of 210 students who proved willing to participate had to be reduced

to 200 students over the varying extent of questionnaire form completion by the interviewees

(Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018).

Methods. Each participant was provided with an anonymous questionnaire to complete,

which inquired about family details, personal details, study habits, leisure time, and video game

use. A researcher interacted with students in the classroom in the course of the first session.
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After rapport being established, the researcher proceeded to clarify the purpose and outcome of

the study and received students’ participation consent. Teachers helped split student volunteers

into small groups and provided questionnaire forms to fill. To process students’ interview input,

the researchers utilized a video game addiction scale with 10 questions in an effort to evaluate

the attitude towards and nature of video games, leisure time activities, video game use frequency,

and the length of engagement with the video gameplay, which were reportedly evaluated on a 4-

point scale. Used was also a study habits checklist adopted from the “Student Enrichment

Programme.” The checklist composed of 20 closed-ended questions with two exact response

variations of “yes” or “no,” which allowed evaluating students’ study habits. The application of

descriptive analysis enabled the description of participants’ gaming conduct, demographic and

social information, and the prevalence of probable gaming addiction, as gauged by the video

game addiction scale (Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018).

Findings. Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) found that 44,5% of sample members did

not play video games. An estimated 18% of students used video games for entertainment.

Gaming pathology applies more or less to 20% and 17,5% of students who committed excessive

time to gaming or qualified as gaming addicts respectively. In terms of playtime, 23,5% of

students played for half an hour on a daily basis; 31% were found to play between 1 and 2 hours

daily; 19% were playing for video games for over 3 hours. It was clearly found that students who

played excessively and who were addicted had more issues associated with study habits, unlike

children who used games with control.

Strengths. Since many a study focuses on Turkey presenting the findings of the

game/internet addiction on local school students, the scrutiny of the correlation between

dependence and scholastic success in India is a proper attempt at the ethnic diversification of the

focus group. Another strength relates to the efforts to boost study accuracy, as seen in the

decision of its authors to scrap as many as 10 forms that were found incomplete following their

submission by students. Last but not least, legality detailed elaborately by its authors is
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characteristic of the study. Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) reported to have received ethical

approval from the Department of Psychiatric Social Work of the National Institute of Mental

Health and Neurosciences. Both schools obtained the letter of permission. Parents were also

informed about the study along with its implications and provided with consent forms, which

they sent to school headmasters (Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018). It follows therefrom that one

of the strengths is the legality of results that are unlikely to be delegitimized, which can follow

the submission of a complaint by parents if its organizers fail to elicit consent for children’s

involvement.

Weaknesses & Limitations. Since students knew about the upcoming tests, which likely

prompted some of them to prepare “less compromising” answers to what could expose their

harmful gaming hobby and leave them gameless for weeks, the lack of spontaneity may have

interfered with the veracity of answers that would reflect a precise status quo in terms of gaming

habits, which is key to the establishment of how exactly a certain amount of gaming time

influences scholastic performance. Student had research purpose and outcomes explained by the

interviewer before questionnaire forms being handed out, which gave them to understand that

questions may yield answers that can have entertainment-affecting and disciplinary outcomes

back at home, which may have led to a truth concealment strategy or the question-skipping

participation behavior that led to 10 forms being incomplete, which required their removal from

the final sample. Informing participants about research purpose and implications is, by far, an

inevitable limitation that no study can avoid that expects to obtain results in an ethical and legal

way. Researchers have no way of implementing interviewing, without securing the consent of

participants and/or their related guardians. There is more to study weaknesses than this.

Different sample characteristics compiled by interviewers had different research

opportunities to offer that seem to have been overlooked though. The study identified the age

group of fathers, the income characteristics of families, from which children came, and even the

extent, to which families were nucleus or complete. While these may seem but background
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details, there are deeper implications therein in that they can give an insight into the affordability

of computers and games even despite India having the piracy rate estimated by Kelly and

Williams (2014) at 63%, since richer users can be expected to buy licensed products. The more

expensive games are, the more realistic and popular they should be, which makes them more

conducive to addictive habit formation ability, which is what the mentioned background details

could have revealed if studied properly by the scholars. This can allow verifying the veracity of

the relationship between addiction and access to gaming-enabling computers and show if the

identified level of addiction prevalence correlates with the socioeconomic status and the general

academic success of the selected group of sample students.

Furthermore, the researchers themselves made study limitations known reporting that it

was on video and internet gaming in general rather than internet gaming that the focus lay

(Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018). There is a good reason for the study authors to be skeptical

about the novel nature of their research, inasmuch as they have unique features that relate

directly to the probability of addictive gaming behavior formation. Matz (2013) explained that

the best part of online games was multiplayer in nature, which presupposes the availability of

competition. Many an individual is driven to secure victories and become the best while gaming.

There is social recognition and pride at being at the top of the “high scores” leaderboard (Matz,

2013). Thus become games a compensatory mechanism that allow users to make up for the lack

of classroom recognition by peers and teachers that may be the case prior to the acquisition of an

interest to gaming and its pathological evolution into a psychological addiction as a result of

excessive routine game experience. Addiction, in turn, can lead to the complete loss of control of

the academic affairs and withdrawal from the familiar social circle. Yet again, online games can

offer an escape avenue. Matz (2013) explained that multiplayer games can be a social experience

regardless of whether one puts together cooperative teams or squares off against other players.

For some individuals, games are a causal way to while away the time and share social

experiences with family and friends (Matz, 2013). Moreover, plenty of online games launch the
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online communities of their own, while others may come to integrate the existing real-life

communities of players into the virtual world (Kopia, 2019). Since users get to socialize with the

likeminded, fellow gamers will not reject them until probably beaten in a competition-driven

game, yet the percentage of gamers who will not suffer others to overcome them is unlikely to be

significant. Addicted gamers can develop friendship bonds with their peers, since the game topic

dominating their conversation themes is unlikely to scare them off. Standard computer or

console games not equipped with the multiplayer option do not have benefits like the sense of

competition, recognition, or social contact with the likeminded to offer. Online games seem to

recreate a virtual reality that may be hard to leave to commit any portion of time to academic

endeavors. Therefore, online games with their multiplayer formats are a far better focus than

standard games that may not prompt the comparable extent of dependence on the part of students

due to the mentioned benefits, which is reason to enough to think the generalized focus of the

researchers a limitation and a study weakness.

As further acknowledged by the researchers, the current study does not rest upon

structured psychiatric interview and diagnostic criteria for internet gaming disorder

(Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018). Nordgaard et al. (2012) defined a structured interview as

that, which is composed of predetermined questions that are presented in a fixed sequence and

that generate diagnostic information based on the observations of interviewers and the responses

of patients. Interviews lay visible syndromes and symptoms that meet certain diagnostic criteria

(Nordgaard et al., 2012). While the study authors deem the non-use of the diagnostic tools a

limitation, it may not necessarily be so, for the study was oriented towards the identification of

games’ effect on study habits, which means that it was interested primarily on the exploration of

the second element of the causative-consecutive correlation between computer games and their

scholastic impact, without it being equally important to make a study-based attempt at delving

into the manifestation of addiction, still less its etiology or origin. As for other perceived

limitations, Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) acknowledged that the standardized scales with
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good psychometric properties had not been employed. Some of the parametric tests like Scheffe

multiple range test, goodness of fit test, and post hoc test were not utilized as the data were not

skewed. Cross-sectional studies did not have the data needed to understand the amount of time

spent on video games previously (Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018).

Study 4: Relationship between internet addiction, gaming addiction, and school

engagement among adolescents. The following study seeks to establish the link between

internet/gaming addiction and students’ school engagement. Vijayakumari and Manikandan

(2013) referred to school engagement as the relationship of students with rules, peers, and

teachers as well as their involvement in extra-curricular activities, instruction, and curriculum.

School engagement can make itself observed in the willingness to obtain skills and complete

tasks, response to the environment and people, and participation in school activities.

Taş, I. (2017). Relationship between internet addiction, gaming addiction, and school

engagement among adolescents.

Study sample. Adolescents visiting high schools in Gaziantep province shape the

research population of the study while the sample is constituted by 365 adolescents who studied

at an Anatolian high school in Gaziantep in the academic year 2015-2016. In terms of gender,

140 and 225 students were males and females, which is equivalent to 38,4% and 61,6%. The

twelfth grade was represented by 20 or 5,5% of students, while the eleventh, tenth, and ninth

grades were by 201 or 55,1%, 67 or 18,4%, and 77 or 21,1% of students (Taş, 2017).

Methods. The article by Taş (2017) described the interview method as applied for data

collection, with the scale forms applied to students in the high school chosen based on the

accessibility criteria. The study lists a number of data collection instruments, including personal

information form containing a range of variables, including internet use longevity, parental

attitude, and students’ academic achievement and socio-demographics. To measure gaming

addiction, the scale designed by Lemmens, Valkenburg, and Peter (2009) and adapted to the
 21

Turkish language by Ilgaz (2015) was utilized (as cited in Taş, 2017). The scale is composed of

21 items and 7 factors. For scoring in the scale, 5-point Likert type grading was applied. the

grading is provided with the choices of “very often,” “often,” “sometimes,” “scarcely,” and

“never.” The researcher claimed to have utilized first- and second-level confirmatory factor

analyses for testing the construct validity of the scale. In order to measure school engagement for

children and adolescents, the study made use of the scale designed by Hill (2015) and adapted

into Turkish by Çakar and Karataş (2014). The scale is made up by 3 factors, such as friend,

teacher, and school engagement, and 15 items (as cited in Taş, 2017). For construct validity of

the scale, confirmatory factor analysis was executed.

Findings. The study identified a weak negatively significant correlation between internet

addiction and school engagement among adolescents (Taş, 2017). Student engagement is

understood to be the major element of a positive school climate that is associated by most of the

researchers with academic achievement. The concept is also defined as strong relations between

teachers, students, families, and schools as well as the strong ties between schools and the wider

community (National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, 2019). What the

finding goes to demonstrate is that the levels of engagement decline as internet addiction mounts.

However, the link between school engagement and gaming addiction was not established. This

put the scholar in a position to maintain that gaming addiction was unable to predict school

engagement considerably, unlike internet addiction that could serve as a predictor (Taş, 2017).

Weaknesses & Limitations. As posited by Taş (2017), gaming addiction could not

predict school engagement considerably. Stated otherwise, the predictor is only of a very limited

utility, or, rather, children abusing online games largely engage in school activities and perform

academically as enthusiastically as peers not addicted to games. This may run counter to logic,

since the addictive nature of the “excessive” habitual gaming activity implies the commitment of

a large amount of time to games that could otherwise be spent studying, which cannot but affect

the quality of subject mastery that requires that students be engaged in off-hour or extracurricular
 22

studies when back home. This logic is confirmed by different researchers, including Demir and

Kutlu (2018) who agreed that the internet covered an essential part of the daily life of

adolescents using preoccupation on the internet. This leads youngsters to de-prioritize their

academic duties and work and place the internet on the foreground (Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

Therefore, the gaming addiction is very likely to make its impact felt in the way of

academic success; thus, it must be a potent predictor. However, if one should consider internet

addiction as such that integrates all other types of internet dependencies, it should likely become

obvious that addiction to internet-based online games does influence academic engagement as a

subtype of internet addiction. Still, the formulation of the researcher clearly draws a dividing line

between internet and gaming addiction types, without it being suggested that the latter can be a

part of the former. In any case, the study result questioning the utility of the gaming predictor

may lay evident limitations faced by the study authors that may have something to do with

measures applied for data collection and even sample size. When it comes to limitations, the

researcher reported the ones encountered, including the sample size of 365 adolescents or high

school students. As acknowledged, the study can be performed in more different and bigger

samples, such as the ones involving university students, secondary school students, and primary

school students. While Taş (2017) did not regard the lack of studies that would attribute

excessive gaming to the willingness to participate in educational or academic activities as a

limitation, it is still one.

Strengths. On the other hand, the deficit of studies observing the connection between

school engagement and internet addiction acknowledged by Taş (2017) means that this study is

inaugural in that it has the empirically achieved evidence of the relationship between online

gaming addiction and school engagement in young students. Another study strength consists in

the prioritization of accuracy by its authors, as seen in the non-inclusion of 11 of 376 data sets,

since as many students chose to leave some of the boxes vacant in spite of having been briefed

about study importance before questionnaire forms being distributed. The author tried to achieve
 23

accuracy by making the provision of credentials by students unnecessary and emphasizing the

importance of sincerity, which should be expected to have improved the level of accuracy. How

the study also managed to achieve greater accuracy was by employing the grading that offered

great variability, as seen in the inclusion of rich answer variations or options, including but not

limited to “very often” “often,” and “sometimes,” which allowed the study to identify different

shades or degrees of dependence on internet-based or online gaming, thereby ensuring accuracy.

In other words, if the researcher had included more categorical answer options, such as “yes” or

“no,” he would have likely failed to measure the precise relationship between variables on the

dependence scale.

Study 5: The impact of heavy (excessive) video gaming students on peers and

teachers in the school environment: A qualitative study. As per Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths

(2018), to explore the effect of heavy gaming students on peers and teachers is what the study

seeks, yet the focus seems to lie more on the effect of excessive gaming on addicts in terms of

scholastic success and the quality of communication.

Yilmaz, E., Yel, S., and Griffiths, M.D. (2018). The impact of heavy (excessive) video gaming

students on peers and teachers in the school environment: A qualitative study

Sample. The sample is composed of 20 individuals, of whom 2 are teachers (an English

teacher and a classroom teacher) and 18 are fourth-grade students whose median age equals 9,4

years. The three heavy games identified in the sample are all males. Another 15 classmates are

rather equally split gender-wise, with 7 boys and 8 girls chosen. As for the teaching contingent

involved, the classroom teacher is male with 10 years’ worth of experience. He was known to

have been teaching sample students for 4 years running, that is, from the 1st to the 4th grade. By

contrast, the English teacher is female as well as being a parent of one of the gaming addicts.

Working at the school since 2002, she had accumulated 18 years of experience by the time of the

study (Yilmaz, Yel, & Griffiths, 2018).

 24

Methods. A multistage sampling approach was applied for recruiting the study group.

The first stage witnessed the use of convenience sampling, which was done for practical reasons

as it has the timesaving benefit, which proved useful when it came to setting a choice on a public

school in the second stage. The application of criterion sampling allowed identifying three

participants who met the criterion of spending four or more hours a day playing video games and

who, therefore, ranked as heavy gamers. As for other methods, study authors developed two

different interview forms, such as the Teacher-Student Association Form and the Peer

Association Form. After the authors were done designing draft interview forms, they sent them

to four field specialists, such as a researcher specializing in videogames, a qualitative researcher,

a measurement and assessment researcher, and a linguist, which they did in hopes of ensuring

language fluency and clarity and providing the face validity. Once received, the feedback of the

experts was employed to revise the draft interviews. To ensure that the fourth-grade students can

understand questionnaire form contents, study authors arranged for two different classroom

teachers to inspect the final version of the forms (Yilmaz, Yel, & Griffiths, 2018).

Findings. Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffith (2018) suggested that the findings of the qualitative

study based on focus groups and interviews generated four principal themes, including selective

social relationships, classroom issues, communication issues, and low scholastic performance.

As per the findings listed in the discussion chapter of the study, a low scholastic performance is

characteristic of heavy gamers, with some students having even attempted to offer such under-

achieving peers a helping hand in a desire to boost academic achievement. It was also found

what could be responsible for such a scholastic failure as heavy gamers were said to prefer home

stay and video games to school activities. The classroom teacher was found struggling to get

gaming addicts focusing on the material in the course of lessons. However, the English teacher’s

remark communicated some positive implications of gaming as it suggested that playing video

games had a potential for helping students master English words, which contributes positively to

their foreign language learning by enhancing motivation towards the English course. Overall, as
 25

was acknowledged by its authors, the study found that gaming could be an excessive activity

even for individuals who are still to reach their puberty. The study demonstrated that videogames

were able to influence the conduct of children 10 years and younger and that their conduct could

have adverse effects on people around them.

Weakness. The weakness of the study manifests itself in the confusing research focus

that is ill interpreted or poorly defined. On the one hand, it posits that in the focus of researchers

is the impact of heavy gamers on peers and teachers in the school environment; therefore, it

seems as though the study had watched gaming addicts influencing peers and teachers, with the

toxic contagious effect leading to the adoption of the gaming behavior. This may well occur,

seeing that people adopt behaviors while a part of the social environment (Crawford & Novak,

2018), especially at the formative stages that are far from finished when they are in their teens,

which follows from Rodić, Pisla, and Bleuler (2014) explaining that behaviors were a part of

personality that, according to Harvard psychologist William James, is shaped only by the age of

30 (Solis, 2019). In truth, anything more than a cursory glance gives one to understand that the

study is about eliciting the evidence of gaming impact on a selected group of students based on

what their peers and teachers have to say following a period of observation. The closest it comes

to examining the effect on peers and teachers is when the study presents the observed negative

effect on communication; however, the finding has more to do with the communication-related

impact on gaming abusers than it does with peers and teachers, since it is gaming addicts who

place themselves in a vacuum, according to Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffith (2018), by discouraging

social contacts via the boring homogeneity of their conversation contents laden with gaming

themes and other factors shaping their communication personality.

This is not all there is to potential study weaknesses. Enlisting the support of school

students may downgrade the quality of the study, since some of the teachers was related to one

of the heavy gamers through a parental bond, which may give the study a bias factor. The quality

of the study or accuracy of results may arguably be lower than it could be, since negative
 26

sentiments entertained towards fellow students like envy or interpersonal conflicts may have

interfered with the ability to provide truthful, unbiased information by students to have

volunteered to participate in the study as information providers, therefore, the evidence may lack

due accuracy. Still, it is unknown if the study authors made an effort to verify the health of

classroom relations and/or the availability of conflicts in the pre-study period when the sample

was being put together, since this aspect goes undisclosed, as follows from the lack of the

respective comments on all the sample assembly details.

Strength. The strength of the study in question consists in it being novel due to no effort

having been made previously of performing qualitative studies exploring what seems to be the

effect of gaming addiction from the perspectives of teachers and peers in the school

environment. The corroborating evidence from parents about heavy gamers is also believed by

study authors to be a novel aspect that adds to the validity of study findings. Study focus as

regards participants’ age in and of itself adds to its strength, with 9-year-olds studied. Since the

majority of studies discriminate in favor of adolescents, this study offers a unique observational

evidence by focusing on a smaller age group. The two teachers involved in the study as its

subjects have both sufficient experience with the study group and the overall teaching experience

of 10 and 18 years, which ensures the provision of in-depth data.

Limitations. Study authors themselves acknowledged that their research was not devoid

of limitations. Despite sample members’ responses to interview questions having been presumed

candid and frank, self-report is open to plenty of well-known biases, including memory recall

and social desirability biases, which may affect the veracity of the findings. The presence of

actively and productively contributing participants in the sample is not what it otherwise could

be. Only three participants are heavy gamers. Furthermore, as few as two teachers partook in the

study, since some of the heavy gamers’ teachers claimed not to know enough about their

students (for example, the ethics teacher and the religious culture teacher). On the positive side,

teachers lacking awareness of students did not participate in the study, which would have led to
 27

results being inaccurate if they had. Lastly, some studies may yield results applicable to a larger

segment of the population if not the entire country; however, this study does not fall under the

category. Since the qualitative study includes only a small number of Turkey-based participants,

it has a possibly weak generalizability to other cultures and classes. In other words, if more

diverse, the sample would make the study more representative. As such, it would be projectable

on a larger section of the society and/or other cultures.

2.3. How Studies Compare

Despite the research focus or study subjects differing, the studies analyzed examine the

effect of gaming on students in terms of their academic success, whether directly or otherwise.

Taş (2017) examined the relationship between gaming addiction and school engagement; Demir

and Kutlu (2018) looked into the relationship between internet addiction and a range of

dependent variables that are influenced thereby, including school attachment levels, academic

procrastination, and academic motivation; Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) examined the

impact of video games on study habits, apart from studying the prevalence of this entertainment

type; Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018) studied the impact of excessive gaming on the scholastic

success and communication quality of those addicted; Başol and Kaya (2018) successfully tested

OGAS or the Online Gaming Addiction Scale as a reliable and valid instrument with adequate

psychometric properties, which showed the negative psychological impact of excessive gaming

on school students with direct, albeit unconfirmed academic implications.

The sample characteristics of the five studies under scrutiny share many similarities,

although they seem different in individual dimensions, which could have influenced the

representational or accuracy-related nature of the results that they yielded. Taş (2017), Demir

and Kutlu (2018), and Başol and Kaya (2018) targeted the same age groups of adolescents (9th-

12th grade) and country (Turkey), although the provinces chosen are different, with Gaziantep,

Elazığ, and Corum and Sivas respectively chosen for three studies. While Yilmaz, Yel, and

Griffiths (2018) did not specify the exact location of sampling, it was likely Turkey, based on
 28

journal and two authors’ workplace details, with the two said to be working in Aydin and the

capital city of Ankara. By contrast, the study by Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) is the only

India-based research across the set of articles handpicked for the dissertation. Unlike the earlier

mentioned Turkish studies, the age group involves 8th and 9th graders. The Turkey-based study by

Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018) is the farthest from all four other studies, since it involves 4th

graders aged around 10 along with much older teachers, as seen in their 10 and 18 years of

experiences. The young age group makes the study the only one to target children rather than

adolescents across the entire set of selected studies.

Gender-wise, Başol and Kaya (2018) assembled a predominantly male sample, as against

Taş (2017), Demir and Kutlu (2018) and Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018) that were rather close

to gender equality in their respective samples, although addicted gamers are 100% male in the

study by Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018). Navaneetham and Chandran (2018), by comparison,

did not differentiate between genders while describing its sample composition. Unlike other

studies, Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018) included teachers in the sample, which is also

incomparably small, which may reveal it as the least representative of all the five studies. Since

three Turkish studies are close to achieving the equal gender division of samples, unlike the

study by Başol and Kaya (2018) that is not, there is no reason for the discriminate sample

assembly principle favoring male subjects; otherwise, all other three Turkish studies would have

assembled similar largely all-male samples. The decision to target mostly males by Başol and

Kaya (2018) may be induced by a presumption of females enjoying lesser access to modern

technologies, which could make them less prolific as research subjects. Still, neither the earlier-

performed study of the female section of the Turkish population and its rights in the country nor

rather equal gender-wise contents of three other samples compiled in the same country justify the

selection-related discrimination.

Not all the studies focused on a dyadic relationship between variable as their research

subject seems very diversified. For example, while Taş (2017) identified a correlation between
 29

addiction and another academic variable, such as school attachment, Demir and Kutlu (2018)

looked into three dependent variables, including school attachment, academic procrastination,

and academic motivation that are shown as connected in quite a complex way. Addiction leads to

academic motivation decline and procrastination or the postponement of academic tasks waiting

to be fulfilled, yet the interrelation is not that simple. Dependent variables are also shown as

interconnected as the study indicates that motivation is the enemy of procrastination as well as a

driver of school attachment, while attachment found to be adversely influenced by

procrastination. Thus, some research subjects perform the dual function of dependent and

independent variables. In any case, addiction is the chief independent variable that gives rise to

all other variables, whether directly or otherwise. It causes procrastination that, in turn, affects

school attachment, which means that postponement acts as an intermediary between addiction

and school attachment and as one of the negative effects of gaming dependence.

When it comes to findings, they reflect a common understanding of the validity of the

negative association between extreme gaming and academic performance deterioration, although

not all the studies showed the connection clearly. While Başol and Kaya (2018) did not link the

study directly to academic performance focusing on the psychological side of excessive gaming

instead, the finding does indicate the negative influence on academic success, albeit indirectly,

that is, by listing psychological effects that, in turn, affect the ability of students to focus on tasks

and otherwise perform in the academic context. Taş (2017), by contrast, did not so much as link

the two variables indirectly having failed to establish the relationship between gaming addiction

and school engagement that is one of the key success determinants. Still, what the finding

suggests is that excessive gaming cannot predict the extent, to which children participate in

curriculum activities, and that significantly, which means that the prediction ability gaming

addiction still has, although it is a minimal one. However, since Demir and Kutlu (2018)

explained that the internet addiction was a broad term, there is still a firm link between addiction
 30

and declining school engagement as Taş (2017) found that internet dependence was a strong

predictor.

Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffiths (2018) were more unambiguous, since their efforts led to the

identification of a clear link between school performance degradation and excessive gaming that

induced absenteeism by tempting them to stay at home and spend time gaming in lieu of going to

school. The same is true of Demir and Kutlu (2018) that tested a range of variables and found

that addiction to the internet, including online games, affected academic motivation. Auxiliary

findings only reinforce this link with their causal implications, as addiction erodes school

attachment key to academic performance and stimulates procrastination, which does not

contribute to the swift completion of academic tasks. The study by Navaneetham and Chandran

(2018) that also found a clear relationship between excessive gaming and school also produced a

finding with a causal implication suggesting that academic results decline over the commitment

of a considerable amount of time to games instead of learning.

3. Discussion

3.1. General Discussion Points

The scrutiny of five studies looking into the potential effect of gaming addiction on the

academic performance of students, whether directly or otherwise, has led to a variety of findings

that have academic implications regardless of the extent of study focus relation to scholastic

success. Even the finding that the Online Gaming Addiction Scale shows that gaming addiction

can be a negative influence on academic success by causing mental issues that the scale has been

found to measure successfully is related to academic performance whose quality should be

understood to depend on psychological stability. Neither hyperactivity/impulsivity nor

depression can translate into academic success. If depressed, a student cannot be expected to

show the studying enthusiasm; thus, the decision to skip lessons leads to the loss of vital

educational information that often needs explaining in the classroom settings for its digestion and
 31

further application, since the portions thereof can be too difficult for students to master them

unassisted.

More unambiguous findings show that addiction to the internet, which is a reportedly

broad concept interpreted as such that includes online gaming, lowers the motivation to study,

which may lead to procrastination, which is when tasks are de-prioritized or moved to the back

of the queue, although both are identified as separate addiction products. That students decide to

put off their academic affairs shows that they experience too strong a temptation to resist it,

which may be a clear sign of the formation of psychological dependence. Since the curriculum

does not move temporally in favor of such students and since tasks assigned in a certain

sequence require the commitment of sufficient time resources, the students addicted to online

games will be sure to be behind schedule, which they will have no way of gaining on due to the

now-addictive nature of their hobby, which bodes ill for subsequent academic success that

requires timeliness and discipline. Procrastination, in turn, erodes school attachment. If such

attachment is defined as the conviction by students of school peers and adults caring about their

learning as well as them as individuals, the loss of such understanding, apparently, leads to self-

marginalization in students’ self-perception and the loss of confidence, which cannot but

interfere with academic performance. Student suspecting of the teacher thinking small of them

may possibly get paranoid while in quest of how to prove themselves competent and diligent.

This may lead to the loss of time and procrastination not induced by video games. One of the

studies generalized the academic variable by referring thereto as study habits. Although left

unspecified, these habits can imply the mentioned procrastination when studies are put on hold,

which can be an acquired academic habit of completing tasks late that assumes shape when the

playing hobby becomes a pathological anomaly that is out of acceptable proportions.

Apart from school attachment, the scientific discourse also related addiction to a decrease

in students’ engagement. Since it implies solid inter-student relations responsible for a positive

school climate, its decline can disrupt social bonds and even lead to interpersonal conflicts,
 32

which can make the classroom environment toxic and even affect students not engaged in the

addictive gaming hobby. The decline of engagement when relations between addicted students

and healthy peers degrade may be an outcome of addicts’ greater isolation and the prevalence of

gaming in their conversation themes, which likely leads fellow students to distance themselves

from such classmates. This isolation has further adverse implications for the likelihood of

addicted students’ academic success, since the loss of quality relations it would be fair to assume

minimizes the willingness of non-addicted fellows to offer a helping hand in the educational

context to the students to have fallen behind over their pernicious digital hobby. One of the

studies did find that fellow students demonstrated the willingness to give addicted strugglers a

hand after their absenteeism got the best of them by as good as bringing their academic

performance to a grinding halt.

The study that found this helping enthusiasm also elicited the view expressed by an

English teacher of gaming assisting with language mastery. Thus, even excessive playing can

have the English-learning benefit to offer due to extensive exposure to the product featuring rich

language reproduction often by native speakers. Still, students may not necessarily play the

English version of an online game. The user-friendly nature of games catered to the linguistic

preferences and abilities of consumers allows choosing from among a range of language options.

If they are still in the process of mastering the English language, as seen in them visiting the

respective lessons, English mastery may be at too low a level for them to be playing a game in its

default language, which is English. The product is not to be enjoyed if their linguistic

competence leaves much to be wished. Therefore, the finding that English competence rises with

game use may not necessarily be valid in relation to all students, yet this depends on the level of

English knowledge and students’ nation of origin and residence, which determines their

willingness to play the English version of an online game and the feasibility of this being done.

Lastly, no age seems immune from the addictive gaming hobby, as was found in the case of pre-

puberty children who were around 10 years of age at the time of study.
 33

3.2. Relation to Other Studies

Article 1. That Başol and Kaya (2018) sought to develop a reliable and valid instrument

with adequate psychometric properties (the Online Game Addiction Scale or OGAS) means that

it focused on a novel approach to measuring the psychological impact of gaming addiction that,

in turn, affects the academic success of student. This may imply that no studies were performed

to measure the utility of the scale that is of the researchers’ design and that is tested by them in

terms of functional utility. Still, the focus of the study on the mental/psychological impact of

excessive gaming related it to a number of studies with a similar focus that examined different

diagnostic tools. Zervopoulos (1999) reported the American Psychiatric Association’s

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to have a diagnostic system for the

diagnosis of game addiction under mental disorders (as cited in Başol & Kaya, 2018). The

current study relates to earlier ones that look at the impact of excessive gaming through the

psychological perspective. Shen and Chen (2015), for example, found that online gaming

addiction influences the psychological and physical health of players alike (as cited in Başol &

Kaya, 2018).

Article 2. The first finding documented by Demir and Kutlu (2018) is that, which shows

that internet (online gaming) addition adversely influences academic motivation needed for

students to commit to academic work. A range of studies is supportive of the finding. For

example, Zhu et al. (2015) established a correlation between academic motivation and internet

dependence (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Tsitsika et al. (2010) identified that adolescents

addicted to the internet tended to surpass peers in terms of the number of unexcused absences

from school (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). The study by Young (1998b) is also believed to

support the first finding being the first to study internet addiction and establish the relation

between academic performance and internet use. The study posited that, when uncontrolled,

internet use can lead to low academic motivation, a failure in academic life, and ultimately

expulsion from school (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

 34

The second finding of the study shows that addiction to the internet positively influences

academic procrastination. Speaking otherwise, it gives rise thereto. The scientific literature

contains studies, such as the ones by Ambad et al. (2017), Brate (2017), Chen et al. (2015),

Demir and Kutlu (2017), and Kandemir (2014b) that mirror the finding (as cited in Demir and

Kutlu, 2018). Young (1998b) used the concept of preoccupation to explain the prevalence of the

internet in people’s lives. Individuals tend to place responsibilities and duties related to house,

career, education, occupations, and jobs at the end of the queue as the occupation of mind is on

the increase. As follows therefrom, at the center of people’s life stands the internet, with

academic duties put off. So follows from the one of the earliest studies confirming the

procrastination impact of excessive dependence on internet use that may come in the form of

disproportional online gaming (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Chin-Li (2014) and Öksüz,

Guvenc, and Mumcu (2017) understood procrastination as a time management failure of the

addicted (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Further findings that the research yielded also find

reflection in other studies.

Based on the third study finding, academic procrastination is negatively associated with

academic motivation, which means that academic motivation losses are academic procrastination

gains. Studies performed by Cerino (2012), Dogan (2015), Kandemir (2014a), Kandemir et al.

(2017), Rakes and Dunn (2010), and Saracaloğlu and Göktaş (2016) and Stell (2007) in their

time are all supportive of the finding (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018) and even earlier studies

are, such as that of Beswik et al. (1998) centered on the link between academic procrastination

and motivation. Diaz-Morales, Cohen, and Ferrari (2008) identified that individuals with higher

academic motivation tended to avoid postponing the respective duties and responsibilities (as

cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

The fourth finding of the study suggests the positive link between school attachment and

academic motivation as the former is driven by the latter. Studies by Hill and Werner (2006),

Riley (2013), and Trolian et al. (2016) and a range of other researchers are supportive of the
 35

finding (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). To be more specific, Duru and Balkıs (2015) stressed

that high academic motivation coupled with interest influences students’ belonging to school in a

positive way (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Karaşar and Kapçı (2016) established a positive

link between school attachment and academic motivation (as cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

Trolian et al. (2016) found that students with the high level of academic motivation have a

greater interest in school, which leads to their committing more time to school endeavors (as

cited in Demir & Kutlu, 2018). Firouznia, Yousefi, and Ghassemi (2009) and Komarraju, Karau,

and Schmeck (2009) identified the correlation between school attachment and academic

motivation explaining it via active participation in lessons and academic achievement. Academic

achievement is low in adolescents with the low level of academic motivation, while peers who

are high on academic motivation achieve more in the academic context (as cited in Demir &

Kutlu, 2018).

Based on the fifth study finding, school attachment is adversely influenced by academic

procrastination, which means that academic procrastination conduct is in inverse proportion to

school attachment. There are said to be studies in the scientific literature that largely echo back

the finding, although the researchers did not come to specify, which ones do. This

notwithstanding, the study authors apparently employed them to explain the mentioned link. As

suggested, adolescents with academic procrastination conduct do not fulfill or disrupt the duties

and assignments provided by their teachers, which will make teachers develop negative

behaviors and attitudes towards such adolescents. Students who are in a constant habit of not

fulfilling or putting off their responsibilities may be subject to criticism on the part of a teacher

in the classroom settings, which can go on to affect the student-teacher relationship.

Subsequently, adolescents may be hard-pressed to connect to teacher deemed an essential

dimension of school attachment. What also happens is that academic achievement in adolescents

with academic procrastination moves downwards, which is why adolescents may prove unable to
 36

make positive connection to school. To all intents and purposes, academic achievement is

understood to be an essential resource for school attachment (Demir & Kutlu, 2018).

Article 3. The study performed by Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) finds its reflection

in a variety of other studies. Hauge and Gentile (2003) that examined an identical sample

involving the 8th and 9th graders also found that 18% of children who were mostly boys, that is,

by 80% fell under the category of gaming addicts (as cited in Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018).

The finding of Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) of 17,5% of students being addicted to

gaming approaches that of Gentile (2009), the publisher of the first US study on pathological

video game addiction, who identified that about 20%-25% of gamers in Asia and the US were

pathologically dependent on the respective products (as cited in Navaneetham & Chandran,

2018). This is not to suggest that the study does not compare to earlier ones in every way

possible. The frequency aspect of gaming that is an important predictor of addiction that is

identified in the study may not correspond with earlier findings. Turner et al. (2012) found that

only 18,3% of students reported playing video games on a daily basis (as cited in Navaneetham

and Chandran, 2018). This somewhat disagrees with what (Navaneetham & Chandran, 2018)

found suggesting that 44,5% of students did not play games, as opposed to 20% and 17,5% of

those who did so excessively and pathologically respectively. If taken end to end, these clusters

give 37,5% of students who do the gaming at least for some time per day. It may be that the

study performed by Turner et al. (2012) and referenced in the article (as cited in Navaneetham &

Chandran, 2018) could not elicit an accurate enough opinion from students who are likely to

have offered distorted answers for fear of facing reprehension on the part of teachers and having

their gaming opportunities cut by parents for disciplinary purposes should the influence of

gaming addiction on scholastic success become apparent.

Article 4. While Taş (2017) did find the inversely proportional connection between

participation in academic activities and addiction to internet along with internet-based products

like online games, the researcher reported that no studies were to be found in literature that
 37

would research the mentioned link. However, a closer inspection of the literature reviewed by

the scholar does yield corresponding studies. For example, Cao and Su (2006) found that

addiction to the internet tended to have an adverse effect on school life (as cited in Taş, 2017).

Luciana (2010) correlated the internet addiction with school issues (as cited in Taş, 2017). Such

issues may relate directly to scholastic performance, which was shown by Young and Rogers

(1998) and Çetinkaya (2013) and Brunborg, Mentzoni, and Froyland (2014) reporting low

academic performance (as cited in Taş, 2017). Tanrıverdi (2012) was more specific associating it

with academic success by acknowledging that school grades grew worse (as cited in Taş, 2017),

as was Taçyıldız (2010) who virtually reproduced the finding indicating a reduced grade point

average (as cited in Taş, 2017). The decline in grades serving as school performance indicators

may be down to troubles related to homework, which Taylan, Kara, and Durğun (2017)

considered hindered by the internet addiction (as cited in Taş, 2017).

Article 5. The low academic performance outcome identified by teachers and peers

chimes in with earlier studies, including Hastings et al. (2009) and Skoric, Ching, Teo, and Neo

(2009) (as cited in Yilmaz, Yel, & Griffith, 2018). A study by Rehbein, Kleimann, and Mossle

(2010) came to a similar conclusion reporting school truancy and lower school success as such

that are caused by problematic gaming (as cited in Yilmaz, Yel, & Griffith, 2018). The finding

that playing games assists students with learning English conforms to the study of Griffith

(2008) that identified the education importance of video games suggesting that they are

beneficial if assessed by teachers in the way of benefits. They may permit students to play them

in the education context (as cited in Yilmaz, Yel, & Griffith, 2018). Still, such games may not

necessarily evoke much interest in students and it is of crucial importance that there be one;

otherwise, lethargic, passive interaction with the product may not lead students to gain expected

skills. Having students playing games at school per se may not be a good idea. School hours

provide an intermission or an interval between their gaming hours, which may suppress the

formation of an acute form of dependence, else the addition of extra gaming hours can prove
 38

counterproductive given the insertion of games with educational benefits that may be developing

attention, expanding linguistic skills, or otherwise benefitting students. Such way or another, the

academic benefit of gaming related to English mastery can be found in other studies.

3.3. Literature Gaps/Weaknesses

The chief literature gap comes in the form of the shortage of studies that would be

longitudinal or such that would study the addiction problem over a long period and at an

individual rather than a group level, since studies seem rather generalized at this point, with the

effect of excessive gaming considered in the context of samples that includes several hundreds of

students. Deficient is also the focus on children rather than adolescents, the latter being more

heavily featured in recent studies. The youngest age cluster that the chosen studies often target

are 9th graders or young individuals ages 14-15 approximately. Instead, it is rather rare for

researchers to examine children or those who have yet to reach puberty or maturation whose

onset is associated with adolescence. There seems to be a dearth of studies centering on the

effect of addiction on students based on observations by peers and teachers. Furthermore, there

are no studies to be found that would compare the academic effect of games in different

locations whose economic state determines the extent of technology proliferation. Neither do

researchers recognize the importance of online games’ typology. There being different games,

they can have different effects on players. Na et al. (2017) acknowledged that there was minimal

research concerning the influence of various game genres on internet gaming addiction. If

present, this research could clarify which genres are most responsible for eroding the academic

performance of children and adolescents.

Lastly, studies seem affected by the lack of clarity and a unitary addiction classification,

which makes itself seen in the following study. In the study by Navaneetham and Chandran

(2018), the heaviest gamers spend a maximum of 3 hours in front of the screen. Since close to a

fifth of the sample was defined as addicts, they spend just as much as specified earlier. Still, this

finding may run counter to other studies as it falls short of the number of hours needed to rank an
 39

individual a gaming addict. Lopez-Fernandez (2018) identified that addicted gamers spent 30

hours a week playing, while those who did around 20 fell under the category of highly-engaged

players. Thus, 3 hours a day mean that the heaviest Indian gamers commit just 21 hours of their

week time to playing, which earns them the classification tag of highly-engaged players who are

yet to become addicts if at all if the other classification is to be trusted. Therefore, owing to there

being no identifiable or well-defined temporal borders of addiction, studies are at liberty to use

the amount of gaming time that they regard as such that signifies the dependence of children on

game products. This complicates the comparison of studies since what one group of scholars

defines an addiction another one deems as high engagement, which leads to acceptable gaming

habits being classified as addiction.

More to the clarity issues encountered, it is not clear whether studies differentiated

between games and other factors contributing to a poor run of academic form, which is

important, since family issues, the disruption of social bonds, feelings that are not mutual, and

other mood and studying enthusiasm determinants do not seem factored in by any of the

examined studies that tend to generalize attributing scholastic success and/or performance

quality to the gaming behavior of students. The best they can do is differentiate between genders

and among age groups to see, which one is more engrossed in this form of nonactive

entertainment. Although present, this deficiency does not seem possible to address, since

measuring the extent, to which each of the non-addiction factors influence individual students is

impossible, to say nothing of the cost and time input. At the same time, it is challenging to

identify the complex set of factors affecting the scholastic performance of students alongside the

addiction factor even if students self-report them, which would require a great deal of

introspection or self-examination on the part of students who may not be able to perform it due

to yet-immature analytical faculties.

 40

3.4. Recommendations

Research nature change. It is like game/internet addiction researchers to point to

potential future study directions through perceived research limitations. Thus, for example,

Demir and Kutlu (2018) believed that researchers will be better off performing longitudinal

research to study the effects of internet addition on school attachment rather than stick with the

cross-sectional method limited to a single period. Truly, the longitudinal method may give

researchers a better or different perspective. Institute for Work & Health (2015) explained that

longitudinal studies enabled the execution of a few observations of the same subjects over a

period of time that may span plenty of years. A longitudinal study benefit is that scholars are

well-placed to identify changes or developments in target population characteristics at both

individual and group levels (Institute for Work & Health, 2015). Therefore, what may be done in

the context of the game addiction research is to study the gaming addiction of students and

children diachronically, that is to say, over a long period, which may be useful due to the

possibility of students being at different levels of dependence at a specific point in time used in

cross-sectional studies. Navaneetham and Chandran (2018) recommended that long-term studies

be performed to identify the tendency of video game use over the years. The future research

recommendations made by the study authors makes sense. A longer period of time will allow

understanding how tracked addiction levels vary and whether their peak and bottom points

coincide with specific academic performance levels. Furthermore, if studies can depart from the

group focus and also look into the addiction issue through the prism of individual stories, it can

gain a deeper understanding of the problem instead of interpreting it at generalized group level

that may fail to consider individual characteristics of research subjects and their response to or

role in the formation of psychological dependence that takes its ultimate toll on academic

performance. Therefore, for further studies to be going longitudinal can offer a fresh perspective

that may discover new implications and help combat the problem of online gaming addiction

development in children and adolescents.

 41

Diversifying the sample-based age portfolio. Speaking of children, researchers it will be

fair to presume will fare better diversifying their research focus in age terms. As matters stand

presently, they are wrong to prioritize adolescents to the detriment of younger demographic

groups inasmuch as children below 14 actively participate in curricular activities as school

students who are equally exposed to technologies, which can lead to the development of an

online gaming addiction. The inclusion in comparative studies could offer an insight into when it

is that game dependence reaches a maximum level or starts to assume pathological proportions

that interfere with students’ resolve to commit time, energy, and other resources to academic

activities. Furthermore, even if not comparative in nature, the study of younger children can

disclose the evolution of the online gaming dependence over a larger period spanning childhood

and adolescence.

New research foci. Online game addiction researchers will be best served by considering

new foci. Plenty of studies target the Turkish audience, which needs to change, since technology

penetration should be greater in the western hemisphere and European countries, from which it

often originates and where people have greater economic resources to spend on the acquisition of

gadgets and other hardware facilitating the development of addiction to online games.

Researchers would be wise to switch to comparative studies by picking students from different

locations to see if there is any endemic difference in the addiction degrees and if some locations

can experience a greater drop in academic performance relative to others due to the mentioned

possible dependence degree variability. Likely, there will be none except that the economic

health of each location can predict the level of dependence by determining the extent of

technology penetration shaped by the personal welfare situation, that is, richer regions or

provinces can see more gadgets and computers bought by people, which increases the prevalence

of children and adolescents’ exposure to technology and, possibly, addiction when interaction

with the technology spirals out of control.

 42

It may be the socioeconomic status along with subsequent access to monetary resources

that can determine the development of specific personalities responding to excessive gaming.

Thus, for example, greater addiction to online games in one province can be found to be an

outcome of the worse economic development of the region and subsequent welfare decline that

will increase the odds of family conflicts, to which children are exposed, which will modify their

psycho-emotional health enhancing susceptibility to online games as escape avenues or coping

mechanisms allowing them to vent emotions or get themselves distracted. Researchers can also

study a single region provided that its economic situation has altered under the influence of

adverse economic developments in a bid to see if and how a change for the worse tells upon the

evolution of the scope and prevalence of gaming dependence among young residents visiting

schools. Although possibly feasible, these complex links remain to be studied. Certainly, they are

worth studying, since such causal, exploratory studies can shed light on what drives children to

come committing excessive day and, possibly, nighttime to online games and go on to display

academic results that are below par and that fail to help them achieve the respective success. At

the same time, studies can compare students and nonstudents in terms of addiction degrees and

their resultant academic/professional influence; however, their daily schedule of sample

participants will need studying for there to be a comparative workload and an important set of

duties.

Clearly, researchers should know better than to ignore the diversity of online game

genres. Theoretically, different genres can tell upon brains differently, thereby influencing

academic performance and further success in different ways. Science Daily (2017) identified that

playing video games could alter brain regions responsible for visuospatial skills and attention by

boosting their efficiency, based on research findings. Research must be done to look into if and

how brain regions are affected by excessive gaming. What can also be studied is which online

game genres are most preferred by students, which will offer a greater glimpse into the likely

scope of excessive gaming contribution to academic decline. There is a great research potential,
 43

as follows from the number of online game genres available. Balakrishnan and Griffiths (2018)

differentiated among 14 game genres, such as word, trivia, strategy, sports, role playing, racing,

puzzle, casual, casino, card, board, arcade, adventure, and action. This typology much coincides

with Metacritic’s classification scheme that includes wrestling, wargame, turn-based strategy,

third-person shooter, strategy, sports, simulation, role-playing game, real-time strategy, racing,

puzzle, platform, party, flight/flying, first-person shooter, fighting, extreme sports, adventure,

and action genres (Arsenault, 2009). Still, some game genres do not deserve prioritization as

much as others do. Adolescents are unlikely to have much money to spend while playing casino

or card games and children are even less so. In this case, the research worthiness of a certain

student group is directly proportional to their age; therefore, adolescents are an optimal age

group to target to see the effect of online gambling games on students’ performance in the

academic settings. Unlike adolescents, children are just too young for them to earn money as

recruited temporary workers.

Furthermore, to be studying how each genre influences children and adolescents’

personality if abused would be rational, since it may be that there are varying degrees, to which

they cause dependence in gamers and, subsequently, affect their academic success. Speaking of

students’ personalities, there can be said to be different personality traits. Based on the official

classification of personality traits in the hierarchical organization of personality, they include

neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience (Bergin

& Bergin, 2014). At least some of them appear responsible for the maintenance of students

studying enthusiasm. As specified by C.C. Bergin and D.A. Bergin (2014), open people are they

who are curious, creative, and smart. They like it when they are immersed in though and new

projects, when they get to express themselves, and when they explore new situations. When it

comes to neurotic people, they are insecure and anxious. They feel hurt easily, get sick or go to

pieces while under stress, and worry excessively (C.C. Bergin & D.A. Bergin, 2014). It is

important to identify if neuroticism is a fixed, innate personality trait or whether it is a developed

 44

feature whose onset coincides with the intensification of the gaming experience, which may well

be the case. Information Resources Management Association (2019) confirmed that studies had

found a link between neuroticism and addiction to online games. This means that people find

their emotional stability falling as addiction grows (Information Resources Management

Association, 2019). The risk is that young students can go from being open to new experience to

being neurotic and secluded in their personal shell abandoning former explorative enthusiasm. If

they become easy to irritate, they will be quick to quit at the first best opportunity if not drop out.

The elaborate study of such students’ response to their stepping up routine gaming can explain

the alteration of their personality and dip in performance that teachers often struggle to interpret

to take any measures in efforts to reverse the situation.

Furthermore, some of the current research that tracks down personality change

trajectories needs to show the dualism of online game influence based on the amount of daily

playing; however, important is that the effect of online games on the same variable be analyzed,

such as a specific personality trait. Teng (2008), for example, found that online games players

had reported higher scores in extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness, as against

nonplayers; however, the study never showed the fallout of excessive gaming on extraversion.

Although the multiplayer format online games can boost extraversion by creating

communication opportunities even for abusing players when they square off against others or

strategize with fellow gamers to gain a joint victory, single-player ones can replace the actual

interaction with peers leading to greater seclusion and personality modification, with games

acting as compensatory mechanisms making up for the loss of the peer environment. There

should be no thinking human personality fixed.

Researchers need to look into the availability of genetic or brain-based predisposition

towards introversion and its development under the influence of external stimuli, such as

excessive gaming or the replacement of the human environment that comes therewith. Professor

Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences Susan Whitbourne (2016) confirmed the possibility
 45

of personality adjustment towards greater extroversion, for example. When the foundation may

be laid for such adjustment may be in childhood, as per the psychoanalytic approach resting

upon the belief that childhood experiences tend to influence the development of later personality

features, as do they psychological issues and that greatly (Plotnik and Kouyoumdjian, 2010).

What this means is that online games abusing in childhood can set the stage for introvert

personality development.

However, a range of empirical studies would be essential, especially in relation to

excessive gaming as a factor in personality alteration, whether in childhood or adolescence. Such

studies can find the possibility of extreme gaming in terms of rendering school students more

introvert over the loss of live communication and/or academic struggles that could cause

interpersonal bonds disruption if performance decline evokes derision on the part of fellow

students. Introversion can be expected to deal a further blow to academic success, albeit not by

interfering with mental or other capabilities of extreme gamers. Eysneck and Eysneck indicated

that introverts were introspective, retiring type of people, and quiet (as cited in Ewen, 2013).

Such people may be ideal targets for school bullies. Kumar (2015) explained that it was quiet

individuals that bullies often chose in the solid belief that sensitive and quiet people will not

have the will or courage to fight back. Bullying, according to Garrett (2010), leads to fear that, in

turn, translates into truancy, absenteeism, or dropping out of school. Such is the complex

sequence of processes that the unhealthy portions of time committed to online gaming may well

cause in the student segment of the population represented by children and adolescents, yet more

research is needed to produce the firm of evidence of this presumed sequence of correlated

developments.

Empirical function transition to non-researchers. It may be necessary to do something

about the presence of researchers in schools where they do the sampling and perform other

study-related operations. Researchers will stand to gain from assigning the observational duty to

teachers and peers rather than from self-insertion in the academic institution. The exclusion of
 46

independent researchers from the institution will make for a more natural atmosphere, in which

students addicted to online games of whatever genre will be sure to put the academic effects of

dependence on display, without fearing lest they be watched. They have every reason to fear

since their addiction outing can lead to gadget deprivation at home if the word of their unhealthy

online hobby has not reached the ear of parents before the study being performed. Under this

scenario, they may be wary of not showing due diligence to gain better transitional academic

results or not simulating healthy lifestyles by reporting wrong playing time figures. Therefore,

reassigning the empirical duty to the academic process participants will lead to greater accuracy,

yet confidentiality seems needed, else any leakage of a study probing under-achieving students’

performance in relation to addiction may lead to all efforts being in vain in the aftermath.

Students may fail to be keeping a low profile unless instructed to be. A risk, however, is that the

microclimate deteriorates in the time that follows the study when its details do out, which they

eventually will. In any case, Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffith (2018) recommended that future studies

replicate and extend the findings that the current study generated through large samples in other

jurisdictions and countries. The researchers would do better to recommend studies comparing

several locations at a time rather than just move elsewhere. Yilmaz, Yel, and Griffith (2018) also

opined that the incorporation of longitudinal designs could improve the findings of the present

study that are cross-sectional.

A unitary addiction classification. The scientific community will be better suited

developing a unitary classification of addiction, which they can supply with more detailed

grading rubrics, else it runs the risk of producing a controversial body of literature that is already

assuming shape. What some studies consider addiction others treat as adequate engagement in

the cyber world of online games. This distorts the overall picture of addiction in its different

dimensions, which can downplay the urgency of the problem and the stalling of the introduction

of measures battling addiction, which will keep reducing the number of qualified and apt talents

produced by the nation that are capable of taking over unfilled vacancies and working in their
 47

line of duty productively. Such measures can break the vicious circle involving addiction and

academic decline. To avoid disparate, contrasting visions, a synthesizing research may be

performed reviewing current studies and their findings for the production of a single vision. If

not, the American Psychological Association can offer an addiction interpretation or an

international forum can vote for an updated and universally applicable classification of gaming

dependence.

4. Conclusion

Thus, academic or scholastic performance predictably suffers from the addiction of

individual students to online games or the internet that was still found to include such games

despite the propensity of researchers towards generalization and ambiguity. Although no effort is

made at identifying the extent, to which non-addiction factors are responsible for the decline in

scholastic performance, the negative correlation between the variables of performance and

addiction is established in all studies, bar none. Even if a study measures the utility of a tool

measuring the psychological effects of extreme gaming on students, it still indicates the negative

academic implications of addiction, since any alteration in the psycho-emotional health of

students towards greater irritability or depression can tell negatively upon their academic success

at least through absenteeism that manifests in the desire to skip lessons, with games likely

playing as stress-relieving and mood-boosting tools. Since excessive gaming lowers attachment,

students lose a belief that others care about their learning and personalities, which, apparently,

rocks their studying motivation, which is central to academic success. Student engagement was

also found to be affected in equal measure, which means that the interpersonal relations between

peers and students and teachers suffer. If a teacher loses the bond, he or she will struggle to get a

message across to a student and act a role model. At the same time, the deterioration of links

between students may reduce the likelihood of well-performing students helping strugglers to

close the academic gap. In both cases, addicted students will stand a worse chance of regaining

the learning pace and achieve meaningful results. If students become addicted, they may adopt
 48

the studying habit of procrastination causing them to put off academic tasks instead of

completing them in a timely manner, which is a prerequisite for scholastic success. While there

is no unitary classification of addiction in terms of the number of hours played by an individual

on a daily basis, the commitment of the excessive amount of time is believed to affect school

success and/or performance from every conceivable metric in different nations, be it India or

Turkey, the latter dominating scientific studies.

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