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San Rafael, Zaragoza Nueva Ecija

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction

It is quite fascinating how modern technology have

shaped the way people live today. From the way people use

their gadgets like for instance in their daily works or

jobs, these gadgets have a huge role in making things

faster. But these aren't the only things those gadgets are

used for.

Computers are one of the most commonly used type of

gadget that is often used all around us. It has many uses

and quite often used for entertainment. It has many

functionality and one of those are the games that these

gadgets provide which we call now as video games or

“Computer Games”.

Computer games have existed as a major and popular

recreational activity in the modern societies since the

creation of the first game ever created in the1970's. Since

the introduction of those personal computer games which

targets a variety of people in different ages, the demand

and availability of electronic entertainment has increased

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drastically, becoming accessible to the places that it has

never been available before.

It is believed that computer games, like watching TV

provides opportunities for learning visually especially

because these games are more active compared to watching TV,

they are considered more effective.

Since these games are known as the second entertainment

after TV, opponents of these games emphasize on their

negative effects such as stimulation anger and violence,

costing a lot of money and having negative effects both

physically and mentally which conceals the positive effects

of these games such as increasing the coordination of eyes

and hands. (Zamani et.al., 2010)

As mentioned by Klein and Keepers in their research

studies in 1990, students who prefer computer games to other

entertainments have more behavioral problems than other

students. This was due to the great accessibility of violent

games that most gamers want to play.

This supported the study of Woog in his study in 2009

which he states that people who play games are having

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behavioral problems for a reason that video games are made

to be compelling or addictive to its users.

Nowadays, the use of this type of computer games had

evolved from offline gaming to online gaming. An online game

is a type of entertainment that is used to lessen stress and

the boredom of its audiences as it is a type of recreational

activity (Poels, 2012).

The history of online games dates back to the early

days of packet-based computer networking in the 1970’s which

includes the first online game that was created in the 1978

and was originally connected to the Advanced Research

Projects Agency Network(ARPANET) in the 1980. It was at that

time that the first online game was invented.

There are many advantage and disadvantage of using

online games. One of the advantages of it is it can lessen

the boredom as well as the stress it can be a good stress

reliever for everyone but then on the other hand although

there are many good characteristic of online game there must

also be bad effects of it especially when someone pays too

much attention of using it.

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Because of the high availability of computer nowadays,

online games are now easily accessible by learners. It is,

in fact the recreational activity of many learners that they

pass their time away on. The addiction to the feeling and

sense of rivalry and the excitements of the games make them

one of the most common recreational programs for today’s

teenagers, and because of that, they would do anything that

will make their levels or their standing in that game

higher.

They are immersed in the game so much that they

completely cut themselves off on their surroundings.

Challenging with the obstacles and reaching a level higher

than that of their peers that these online games provide to

their audiences make the players excited and losing inside

the game will make them depressed and anxious.

These online games do not only provide entertainment

among its audiences of all ages but also it acts as a

business for young entrepreneurs that are also into online

gaming. These young gamer entrepreneurs will play for hours

and hours online and then sell the account to others which

may cost real currency or money. Subsequently, these online

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games offers so much that it has also intruded the business

world.

Using online games does not only captivate its users to

engage and wander in an open new fantasy world but also it

is one way to socialize with other people because with the

help of online games that particularly needed two or more

players, the use of teamwork is needed and so you are

socializing with them by cooperating and helping to

accomplish the task at hand given by these online games.

As stated by Oded Sparrow (2011) in his study, people

enjoy themselves in immersing themselves in an online game

as it is also a good way to pass time and relieve stress.

This wide variety of games challenges the developers of

games to make more artistic and exciting games that are both

enthralling and interesting.

As of now, it is unclear as to whether the effects of

video games on the students are more positive than negative.

But then various studies have pointed that online games does

more harm than good on people.

The majority of the researches regarding the effects of

computer games are on mental health of players, so consider

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the effects of these games on the social aspect of people’s

lives. According to the study of Scay 2004, people who play

video games too frequently are more likely to be depressed

and withdraw from social activities.

This supported the study of Liebert (2014), which

states that playing high-violence video games for greater

than two hours per day is significantly associated with

higher depressive symptoms. This means that the longer you

play, the more depressed you become.

Beside all the concerns and different views regarding

the effect of online games on psychological state of people,

there are some concerns regarding the effect of computer

games on the academic performance of students.

The negative effects of these games on the academic

performance are showed in some studies. Anderson & Karen

(2002) showed that there was a negative relationship between

the duration of playing computer games and academic

performance.

Durkin & Barber (2002) supported the weakness of

academic performances of users of computer games. According

to their study, those who reported a lowuse of online games

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had higher grades than both those who never played and play

at high levels.

According to a more recent study by Weaver et.al.

(2013), students who reported a high category usage of

online games did report lower GPA’s than students reporting

a low category usage of video games. It is because instead

of studying, students would rather play games and have fun

resulting to low grades.

Playing video games is often associated in our society

with poor academic performance. This anecdotal idea is

supported by some research. A study found a negative

correlation between GPA and time spent playing video games

(Anderson & Dill, 2000).

However, several older studies contend that the

results of research have been mixed. A 1997 study suggests

that “there is no clear causal relationship between video

game playing and academic performance”. It goes on to say

that the research is “sparse and contradictory” (Emes,

1997).

This supported the result of the study of Khadra et.al.

(2012), that there is no correlation between academic

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success and playing online games. This means that playing

online games have actually no significant effect on the

academic performance of students.

The same conclusion has been made in the study of

Riedel (2016), which states that online games has either no

effect or a relatively small effect on academic performance

of students.

The study of Nasution et.al.(2015), also found out that

there is no significant relationship between gaming

frequency and academic performance among students because of

the gaming frequency shows inconsistent effect towards

academic performance.

The effect that interactive digital media has on the

learning process is not completely negative. It is not that

the medium itself is inherently flawed, but much of the

information that gets transmitted through it may be.

As was noted in a 2008 study by Schmidt & Vanderwater,

if the content being consumed is positive, then positive

results can be expected. If the content is negative, then

negative results can be expected. The study examined

research from many sources in arriving at this conclusion.

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There is a movement to leverage video games as a part

of the learning process. A paper from Educause suggests that

faculty need to be aware of games that could be helpful to

the in class learning experience (Hitch & Duncan, 2005). It

mentions using tactical and strategy games to enhance the

level of understanding and engagement with the material.

It specifically mentioned using Civilization IV, a game

which focuses on empire building and economies of scale to

aid in the understanding of history and economics.

Strobach, Frensch, & Schubert (2012) found a relation

between practicing action video games and executive control

skill optimization. They referred to real-life situations

being similar to the complexity of video games. Video games

showed to be an acceptable environment for honing skills

that involved “dualtask” and “task switching” challenges

presented to the tested participants.

Taking a narrower approach, Thirunarayanan and Vilchez

(2012) looked at video game players that have actually

played in a video game tournament setting. While the results

expanded beyond only pertaining to strictly academic subsets

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of skills, the skills could be applied in an academic

setting. These included social skills of giving directions,

leading a group, coordinating activities and functioning as

a member of a team. While more academic based skills as

improved arithmetic skills and information memorization

showed to be evident as well.

Oei and Patterson (2013) looked into the effects of

smaller mobile device games. These games included fewer and

more repetitive tasks. Action related games showed

improvements in test subjects such as superior cognitive

control and better object tracking of more than one object.

It was concluded that training with video games that

involved similar demanding tasks will result in improvement

in the counterpart of the non-gaming task.

Glass, Maddox & Love (2013) fine-tuned their search

specifically to cognitive flexibility and the effects video

games have on it. Results in the study illustrated that

cognitive flexibility is a skill that can be trained.

Participants were trained using the real-time strategy (RTS)

game Star Craft. The game required members of the study to

manage multiple active information sources simultaneously.

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Cognitive flexibility measured during non-gaming tasks after

training with the RTS showed to have great increases.

In research done by Adachi and Willoughby (2013), it

was considered that video games may help enable better

learning principles and encourage better problem solving

skills. More specifically, it was examined to see if

strategic video games would predict self-reported skills at

problem solving amongst adolescents. The study revealed that

larger amounts of strategic video game playing resulted in

higher self-reports of skills involving problem solving. It

was added that an indirect link is present with strategic

video game play and academic grades.

Looking beyond the observations of mental traits of

video game players, Kuhn et al. (2014) observed physical

characteristics of the brain in individual video game

players. Excessive video game play showed to have no

cortical thinning in any of the regions of the brain. Video

game play did show to result in thickening of the brain in

the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the left

frontal eye fields (FEFs). The DLPFC is the portion of the

human brain associated with executive control function and

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planning that involves strategy. FEFs are the part of the

brain that is in charge of processing visuo-spatial

attention and eye movement. It only means that playing

online games does not affect the mental trait of players

negatively.

Ypsilanti et al. (2014) examined games in the sense of

a tool for intergenerational learning. More specifically,

they looked at games as an effective tool within an

organization. Games created as a one-on-one teaching

environment, can pass on critical knowledge within a

workplace. Benefits in addition to this were the elevation

of multiple cognitive skills. Research showed that a few

hours trained with a video game, motivated the learning

process. Specifically, attention and working memory were

heightened.

Not necessarily looking at the effects of video games

themselves, Hamlen (2014) dove into the exploration in

similarities of overcoming challenge between homework and

playing video games. Results showed that Grade Point Average

(GPA) and strategies toward video games did have a

relationship. Students with strategies that included looking

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at and utilizing online resources such as walkthroughs,

reading the packaged-in manual and asking for help were

linked with having more academic success. They were

contrasted with students who looked at these “walkthroughs”

before even attempting the games themselves having poorer

academic success.

These worlds can allow students to interact as a

community. Virtual worlds are useful “because they make it

possible to develop situated understanding” (Shaffer,

Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005). This means that students

are able to actually experience and experiment with the

things that they are learning rather than simply being told

them as facts or equations.

One study of a game relating to numerical analysis in

an engineering curriculum found that “students experienced

significantly more intellectual intensity, intrinsic

motivation, positive affect and overall student engagement

when completing homework” (Coller & Shernoff, 2009).

Research on the subject has been mixed, but it seems that

video games can have a positive effect on learning when used

in particular ways.
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In this study, the researchers will use the Game

Addiction Scale (GAS) by Lemmens(2011) to determine if the

students were addicted to online games or not. The Gaming

Addiction Scale has been developed for adolescents, although

there is no obvious reason why it cannot also be used with

adults.

There is a longer and a shorter version. The long

version has 21 questions and the short version has only 7.

Both have a high level of reliability although in this

research study, the long version will be used with a few

modifications on the question to learn more aspects about

online gaming.

The scale measures 7 criteria of computer addiction,

which are salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse,

withdrawal, conflict, and problems. The salience describes

the importance of gaming to the respondents, the tolerance

describes the increasing amount of gaming, the mood

modification describes the mood or feelings when gaming,

withdrawal describes the unpleasant emotion when not

playing, relapse describes the tendency to return to

excessive playing after a period of abstinence or control,

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conflict describes the interpersonal conflicts due to gaming

and problems describes the problems caused by excessive

gaming.

In Australia, students who play online video games tend

to do better in academic science, mathematics and reading

tests, according to an analysis of data from over 12,000

high school students. The study found that students who

played online games almost every day scored 15 points above

average in mathematics and reading tests and 17 points above

average in science. (Posso, 2012)

However, a study here in the Philippines shows a big

negative correlation between Online Games and Academic

Performance. According to Cortes et. al. (2012), computer

gaming, measured by the number of hours spent playing,

contributes to the probability of a student who is currently

studying to fail in his studies.

In Pasig City, their officials made an ordinance which

prohibits the minor students to play on the nearby computer

shops. They also set a 200-meter radius of any school

banning those nearby computer shops. This is the action

done by the government in answer to the parents’ complains

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about the nearby computer shops. In the parents’ complain,

it is stated that those computer shops lured their children

from schooling which really affects their

academic performance. With this ordinance, it helped their

children to concentrate in their studies (Alave, 2007).

In Baguio City, Principals observed that there were

students which were allowed to go to the computer shops

and play while the classes are still on going. They were

worried about this incident which led them to ask the

government to prohibit the nearby computer shop’s operation.

The Government of Baguio City have aid the problem by

invoking a zone ordinance. With this ordinance, it

somehow lessened the computer addicted students (Opina,

2007)

Consequently, a study by Manugo (2007), proved that the

number of subjects failed increases the probability of

students to drop out. Thus, computer gamers also have a

tendency to drop out of their school and repeat another

academic year of schooling.

These different statements, positive and negative,

regarding the effects of computer games on one hand and

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increasing inclination of students to computer games on the

other hand cause that some researchers attempt to define the

good and bad effects of these games.

In Zaragoza National High School which is surrounded by

online computer cafes, it is evident that online gaming is

widespread throughout the school due to the own observations

of the researchers. Unlike other researches about online

gaming and academic performance, the researchers would also

like to determine the difference of the grades of learners

in the Science-Technology and Engineering (STE) and K-12

regular curriculum. In this study the researchers want to

determine if playing online games affect the grades of the

students negatively. Everything considered, this study will

focus on determining the probable relationship of playing

online games on the academic performance of Grade-10

learners.
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Conceptual Framework

The study entitled “Online Game Addiction and Academic

Performance Among the Grade 10 learners of Zaragoza National

High School” was conducted for a reason that nowadays,

Access to information and online games are always available

to everyone especially students. The fact that computer

cafés are just around of school, it is really obvious that

students engage and involve themselves in playing these

online games, and as a result, will affect their performance

in school.

As according to Lemmens et. al, 2009, study was to

develop and validate a scale to measure computer and

videogame addiction. Inspired by earlier theories and

research on game addiction, we created 21 items to measure

seven underlying criteria (i.e., salience, tolerance, mood

modification, relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems). 

The scale measures 7 criteria of computer

addiction,which are salience, tolerance, mood modification,

relapse, withdrawal, conflict, and problems. The salience

describes the importance of gaming to the respondents, the

tolerance describes the increasing amount of gaming, the

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mood modification describes the mood or feelings when

gaming, withdrawal describes the unpleasant emotion when not

playing, relapse describes the tendency to return to

excessive playing after a period of abstinence or control,

conflict describes the interpersonal conflicts due to gaming

and problems describes the problems caused by excessive

gaming.

Demographic Profile of the respondents

1.1 Sex
1.2 Age
1.3 Section;
1.4 Allotted time playing online games; and
1.5 Online games played?
Online gaming of the respondent
1.1 Salience
1.2 Tolerance;
1.3 Mood modification;
1.4 Relapse;
1.5 Withdrawal;
1.6 Conflict; and
1.7 Problems
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Data Gathering
In conducting this research study, the
researchers will use the non-probability
sampling, specifically the purposive or
judgemental sampling. In this technique the
researchers will select the respondents if they
have a background of playing online games.
Responses from the questionnaire were analyzed
using the descriptive statistics of frequency
counts and percentage,Pearson’s r Correlation
and inferential statistics of T-test.

Identified profile of the respondents

1.1 Sex;
1.2 Age;
1.3 Curriculum;
1.4 Allotted time playing online games
1.5 Online games played?
Identified Online gaming of the respondent
1.1 Salience;
1.2 Tolerance;
1.3 Mood modification;
1.4 Relapse;
1.5 Withdrawal;
1.6 Conflict; and
1.7 Problems

Proposed Action Plan

From the derived conclusions, the researchers devised
an action plan for the learners. The action plan will
be a training program which has seminars and
workshops to improve the academic performance of the
learners by moderating their time on video games

Figure 1. Research Paradigm

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The research paradigm discusses the input, process and

output of the research. In the input, it is compared the

demographic profile of the respondents, online gaming of the

respondents and their academic performance. In the process, it is

composed of data gathering procedure through structured

questionnaire as well as the statistical analysis needed to

analyze the data gathered. Lastly in the output, the identified

profile of the respondents, identified online gaming of the

respondents and its relationship to academic performance were

found. Based on the conclusions that were derived by the

researchers, an Action Plan will be proposed to help the students

improve their academic performance by moderating their game time.

Statement of the Problem

This study entitled “Online Game Addiction and Academic

Performance of Grade-10 learners of Zaragoza National High

School” aimed to identify the probable relationship of online

gaming and the academic performance of Grade-10 learners.

Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions.

1. How may the profile of the respondents be described in terms

of:

1.1 Sex;

1.2 Age;
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1.3 Type of Curriculum;

1.4 Allotted time playing online games; and

1.5 Online games played?

2. How does the online gaming of the respondents be described

in terms of:

2.1 Salience;

2.2 Tolerance;

2.3 Mood modification;

2.4 Relapse;

2.5 Withdrawal;

2.6 Conflict; and

2.7 Problems

3. What is the level of the academic performance of the

students based on their actual grades?

4. Is there a significant relationship between online gaming

and the academic performance of Grade-10 learners?

5. Is there a significant difference between the academic

performance of STE and Regular K-12 students?

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6. What alternative solution may be prepared to increase the

academic performance of Grade-10 learners?

Hypothesis

1. There is no significant relationship between online

gaming and the academic performance of Grade-10 learners.

2. There is no significant difference between the academic

performance of STE and Regular K-12 learners.

Significance of the Study

The result of this study will be valuable and significant to

the following:

To the learners – This study will help the learners to

easily understand and get more information regarding the effect

of online games on their academic performance and to educate them

on how to minimize their time in using the online games.

To the parents – This study will help the parents in guiding

their children about the effects of too much playing online games

and give them knowledge about online gaming.

To the teachers – This study will help the teachers in

finding ways to help learners who play online games to increase

performance in class and also find the intervention to those

learners who are addicted of playing online games.

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To the School – This study will help the school in finding

ways to help reduce learners who fail in class because of playing

online games.

To the Community – This study will serve as a guide for the

community for establishing ordinances or rules to reduce the

availability of online games if necessary.

To the future Researcher – This study will serve as their

reference and basis for the future researches that they will

conduct regarding the effect of online gaming.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The study used Grade 10 learners of Zaragoza National High

School. A survey was conducted about the evaluation of the

respondents regarding the study of the relationship of Online

game addiction and academic performance of Grade-10 learners of

Zaragoza National High School.

This study was conducted to determine the relationship of

online game addiction to the learner’s academic performance. The

Online game addiction was measured through a series of situations

and identifications on the questionnaire.

This study is delimited in finding the relationship of using

online games on the academic performance of Grade 10 Learners in

Zaragoza National High School.

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As researchers, developing an action plan could be of big

help for teachers and administrators of the school in uplifting

academic performance of learners who are engaged in online

gaming.

Definition of Terms

The following words below are hereby, defined for clearer

understanding of the study.

Academic performance is the grades of the learners.

Conflict refers to all interpersonal conflicts resulting from

excessive gaming.

Decision making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in

the selection of a belief or a course of action among several

alternative possibilities.

Memorization is the process of committing something to memory.

Mood Modification is the subjective experiences that people

report as a result of engagement in games.

Online Game refers to a video game that is either partially or

primarily played through the Internet or any other computer network

available. 
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Online Gaming refers to playing video games that is connected to

the internet.

Problems refers to the problems caused by excessive game play.

Relapse refers to the tendency to repeatedly revert to earlier

patterns of game play.

Salience is the quality of being noticeable or important.

Spatial visualization is the ability to mentally manipulate 2-

dimensional and 3-dimensional figures. It is typically measured

with simple cognitive tests and is predictive of user performance

with some kinds of user interfaces.

Tolerance is the process whereby someone starts playing games

more often, thereby gradually building up the amount of time

spent on games.

Withdrawal refers to the unpleasant emotions or physical effects

that occur when game play is suddenly reduced or discontinued.