THE EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAME AMONG TEENAGERS IN

SUSTAINING THEIR MENTAL HEALTH

KHAIRUN KHALEDA BINTI RAMLI

UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA

THE EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAME AMONG TEENAGERS IN
SUSTAINING THEIR MENTAL HEALTH

Khairun Khaleda Binti Ramli

(Matric No : 1180062)

Thesis submitted in fulfilment for the degree of

COMMUNICATION WITH HONOURS

Faculty of Leadership and Management

UNIVERSITI SAINS ISLAM MALAYSIA
Nilai

February 2022
 i

SUPERVISOR DECLARATION
 ii

AUTHOR DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work in this academic project is my own except for
quotations and summaries which have been duly acknowledged

Date : 18 february 2022 Signature

Name : Khairun Khaleda Binti Ramli

Matric No : 1180062
Address : No 50 Rumah Rakyat Padang Lebar
7200 Batu Kikir Negeri Sembilan.
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BIODATA OF AUTHOR

Khairun Khaleda binti Ramli (1180062) was born on the 18th March 1997. Currently

residing at No 50 Rumah Rakyat Padang Lebar 72200 Batu Kikir Negeri Sembilan.

Currently Degree student In Islamic Science University Of Malaysia in the program of

Communication majoring in Broadcasting.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful

First and foremost, I praise and thank God, the Almighty, for His Showers of

blessing throughout my academic project process and able to complete it successfully.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to my academic supervisor, Dr.

Rosidayu Sabran, for giving me the opportunity and provide invaluable guidance

throughout this research. I am grateful to her for being very understanding and

allowing me to complete my research.

I am incredibly grateful to my parents and family members for their love,

prayers, caring, and sacrifices for educating and preparing me for the future. I am very

thankful to them because they understand and give me support during my time to

finish my research.

Not forgetting to all my fellow friends that together, we are struggling to finish

the academic project for the last semester. I am also grateful to my friends that always

help to finish my research. Finally, thanks to all those involved directly and indirectly

in the success of this academic paper writing. All the assistance given is appreciated.
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ABSTRAK

Permainan video merupakan satu fenomena yang berlaku mengikut arus masa. Ia juga

berkait rapat dengan remaja yang semakin menguasai dunia digital. Terdapat banyak

permainan video yang mudah didapati di dalam laman web dan mudah diakses ke

dalam telefon pintar. Semasa bermain permainan video pemikiran dan keadaan kita

semasa sedar akan membawa kita kepada stress dan ketidaksedaran yang lain. Remaja

merupakan individu yang paling gemar bermain permainan video kerana pada zaman

pandemic ini pilihan yang ada untuk lari daripada dunia nyata ialah alam maya. Untuk

berinteraksi dengan individu lain secara tidak bosan. Maka mereka memilih untuk

berlawan dan bersaing di dalam permainan video. Kajian ini, akan mengenalpasti

kesan terhadap kesihatan mental remaja ketika bermain permainan video dalam jangka

masa tertentu Malah akan mengkaji sejauh mana remaja atau pelajar mampu

mengawal dan memastikan masa mereka untuk kekal menjaga prestasi akademik.

Kaedah yang di gunakan qualitatif dengan menggunakan temubual untuk mendapatan

maklumat. 3 orang pelajar telah dipilih untuk dijdikan informan dikalangan pelajar

Universiti Sains Islam.

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ABSTRACT

Video games are a phenomenon that occurs over time. It is also closely linked to

teenagers who are increasingly dominating the digital world. There are many video

games that are easily available on websites and easily accessible into smartphones.

While playing the game our thoughts and current state of consciousness will lead us to

stress and other unconsciousness. Teenagers are the most fond of playing video games

because in this pandemic era the only available to escape from the real world is the

virtual world. To interact with other individuals in a way that is not boring. So they

choose to fight and compete in video games. In this study, we will find out the effect

on the mental health of adolescents when playing video games in a certain period of

time. It will even examine the extent to which adolescents or students are able to

control and ensure their time to remain in charge of academic performance. In this

research qualitative research involve using interview with the 3 informant selected

among Islamic Sains University Malaysia.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

SUPERVISOR DECLARATION i

AUTHOR DECLARATION iiii

BIODATA OF AUTHOR iiiv
ACKNOWLEDGMENT v
ABSTRAK vi
ABSTRACT
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 Background of study 2
1.3 Problem Statement 3
1.4 Research Questions 5
1.5 Scope of Study 5
1.6 Theoritical Framework 6
1.7 Methodology 6
1.8 Conclusion 7

CHAPTER 2 : LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 Definition of Video Games 10
2.3 Definition of Mental Health and Video Games 11
2.7 Conclusion 12

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 13

3.1 INTRODUCTION 13

3.2 Research Design 13

3.3 Qualitative Interviews 14

3.4 Identifying Informants 16

3.5 Data Collection 17

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18
3.6 Data Analysis
18
3.7 Conclusion
19
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS
19
4.1 Introduction
19
4.2 Result Analysis
19
4.2.1 Factors of Playing Video Games
20
4.3.2 Intensity of Playing Video Games
21
4.3.3 Psychological factors
22
4.2.4 Other factors
23
4.3 Conclusion

CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

24
5.1 Introduction
24
5.2 Discussion
24
5.3 Recommendation
25
REFERENCES
27
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Video games are one of the favorite leisure activities of children which can

influence on the individual health that is usually perceived to be negative. But

the recent research show that the fields of physical and mental health

in playing video games in particular, has been shown to improve a variety of

psychological problems. Whereby game-based therapies might have equal

effects or even more effective than non-game-based programmes (Staiano and

Flynn 2014). The study also assessed the association between the amount of

time spent playing video games and children mental health as well as cognitive,

psychology and social skills. When video games began became popular, it were

met with scepticism, which is common in criticisms of new media and

technology (Ceranoglu 2010). Depression and anxiety are the two most common

psychological factors today. They can occur both abruptly and chronically, with

a wide range of symptoms frequently manifesting. This phenomena relate to

mental health either it can be good and bad. Mental health will be affected

within a few factor related to video games. Most of us do not aware of this

symptom because nowadays it became habits. The study of video games for

mental health is not uncommon. Since the 1980s, video games particularly built

for this serious purpose or sometimes called as a serious games that have been

designed to target young adults' mental health. Likewise, commercial video

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games have been used in the context of public health since the 1980s. Mickel

(1982) briefly discussed how these activities may provide a new way for

repairing and assessing brain abilities in severely damaged individuals in 1982.

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1.2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Teenagers, in particular, were captivated to the new medium, and somehow the

researchers studied how this attraction may be used for place to release the burn out or

a way to escape from reality purposes. According to (Malone 1981), video games

meet teenager's needs for challenge, imagination, and curiosity, making them a model

for intrinsically motivated education. Video games also is a habit that will urge the

player to follow the instruction in other to understand the whole games. Rather than

that, Delclos and Kulewicz (1986) found that an instructional video game can

improve sixth-graders' problem-solving skills to a point. Understanding mental health

issues such as sadness and anxiety will impact an increasing number of teenagers

(Merikangas et al., 2010). Teenagers who have both severe and undiagnosed with

known or suspected will be affected in academics difficulties, social issues, suicide

attempts, and reoccurring illness in adulthood (Avenevoli, 2008). It has traditionally

been implicated in a variety of risks to both mental and physical health. The following

are some of the significant and negative effects of electronic gaming on young

people's health the effect of seizures, tendon injuries, and social introversion in cases

of excessive playing, and the promotion of aggressive behaviour as a result of playing

violent video games ( Linder & Walsh, 2004).

1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Video game is an activity with or without purpose that can stimulate our psychology

thinking without realize. During this pandemic, teenager and adult are going through

many difficulties to overcome the stress and to explore new things to learn. Video

games is one of the easiest way to get and access because everyone using smartphone

will entirely utilizing all the function. On the other hand, focusing on the teenager
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mental health is important in identifying how they sustaining their mental health in a

normal condition and control their emotions through virtual world. These issues are

closely related to the social stigma that introduces four characters with various mental

disorders displaying common behaviours for schizophrenia, depression, agoraphobia,

and bipolar disorder, with whom the player must interact in order to achieve

collaboration to work toward a common goal (David Mullor 2019) that currently

exists towards mental health disorders. This stigma is marked by widespread

ignorance and erroneous information regarding psychological disorders. Moreover,

ignorance and misinformation are not only limited to the general population but are

also common among students, healthcare professionals, relatives of patients, and

patients themselves (Adolfo J. Cangas 201) .This lack of understanding is a concern as

stigma toward mental health can complicate treatment and rehabilitation.

The game called Stigma Stop, depicts four characters who experience various

psychological disorders which depression, agoraphobia, schizophrenia and bipolar

disorder (David Mullor 2019). Over the course of the game, players are provided with

information about these illnesses and they are guided along as they learn about a

variety of response strategies. Stigma Stop has been shown to be effective in reducing

stigma among high school students in secondary school and baccalaureate studies

between the ages of 14 and 18. In addition, it has been shown to be slightly superior in

some dimensions to a talk by professionals and equivalent to a life history by mental

health users.

For some people, video game can help them in sustaining their mental health.

But some of them might find video games are just for entertain themselves for some
 5

times. The usefulness or interest of students for the serious game is the time they

typically spent playing video games, or game preference, of the participants. For

example, some studies have found that socially isolated individuals tend to prefer

violent video games (Verona & Kilmer, 2007), but it is unclear whether spending

more time playing video games or having a preference for a particular type of game

can also determine the usefulness of a serious game among students, as in the case of

Stigma-Stop, or if this same group would be interested in such a game. (Ritcher

Werling 2003)

1. 4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.4.1 What are the factors affecting teenager mental health when playing video

games?

1.4.2 How does playing video games intensity affect student’s mental health?

1.4.3. How can video games help the student cope with their mental health?

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

In this research the data will collect among teenagers between 18 – 23 years old. This

research will identify the teenagers that have been involved in video games for at least

1 -2 years. The informant will be select consist of 3 students in University around

Nilai. It will be focusing more on the sleep pattern, the reason they being obsessed

with the video games, their mental health and academic performance.

1.6 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

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This study will be using Game theory as the main framework for creating social

scenarios in which competitive participants interact among players. Game theory was

invented by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern in 1944. In some ways, the

study of strategy or at least the way to help the players in decision-making of

independent and competing participants in a strategic situation. One of the most

popular and basic game theory strategies is the prisoner's dilemma. This concept is the

strategic interactions among rational agents taken by two individuals who share the

same interest will end up with worse outcomes than if they had cooperated with each

other in the first place. However, if he does not in a team work and the other player

does, he will get sentenced alone. This theory relate to this research on how the

players facing a challenges to be in the game, to decide either to lose or win. In

addition, the player will having a dilemma since they are still students and juggling

with the academic performance. This will eventually effected their mental health in

many ways. Besides, the consequences same as the research finding in order to

identify the effect and how the intensity of video games effected their mental health in

because dilemma of the student either to control the behavior or to cope with the

environment in video games.

1.7 METHODOLOGY

In this research it will be conduct with a qualitative research. This is qualitative

research that will be using as tools to collect data among 3 students from Universiti

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). Interview will help the researcher explain,

explain, better understand, and explore research subjects' opinions, behavior,

experiences, and phenomenon. Interview research that contains idiographic is for

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for typically find a sample size that is sufficiently small for individual cases to have a

have a locatable voice within the study, and for an intensive analysis of each case to

case to be conducted (Smith et al. 2009). It is a good way to collect the information

information from a small number of people or people who may not have time or take

take part in experiments because it will take place in Microsoft team that will be

flexible and not consuming much time. Random sampling at the first stage for the

the researcher pick randomly the student from USIM consist of male, and familiar

familiar with the video games for at least 1-2 years experience.

Next, purporsive random sampling is essential that the method of obtaining

data and the source of the data be chosen with caution, especially since no words can

explain or accommodate for improperly collected data (Rukayya S Alkassim 2015).

Hence, researcher pick 3 students of male which is really into the game. The

researcher filtering based on the criteria which is male and experience in professional

gamer or involved in any tournament to show that they have an indepth understanding

in video games. It is easy to get an information from the informant that has been

specified. The researcher will conduct an interview based on the elements of this

population's gaming habits in order to gain a better understanding the usage of video

games. Specifically, to gather perceptions and data, a semi-structured interviews will

be provide to each of the informants. Gaming experiences, and mental health in a

clinical group of students, and then used topic analysis to examine the interviews

(Gale et al., 2013).

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1.8 CONCLUSION

This research will find out how the effects of video games will be affects mental

health of teenagers either in good term or bad term. Based on the literature mentioned

above. All the data will be collected and analysis follow up by the method that has

beendecided.
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CHAPTER 2 :LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter will explain a literature review is a piece of academic writing

that contains knowledge and understanding of the academic literature on a particular

topic in context. A literature review involves an evaluation of the content, which is

why it is called a review rather than a report. Doing a literature review should help us

learn about previous research and determine what is undiscovered about particular

issue.

2.2 VIDEO GAMES

There are many types of games presents an approach. Especially identifies two

orientations. It is calls it paida and ludus. We can understand it as freedom and

constraints. It is describes the difference between play and game. Effectively, some

games without amount outcome can be considered as toy-games that are famous these

days are SimCity, 1989, and The Sims, 2002 ( Gredler 1996).

Video games is defined as Provenzo's (1991) the place children in consumer

roles, where they enter the worlds of other designers rather than creating their own

through play. In other opinion similar to those made against television, he claims that

children are missing out on opportunities to develop their creativity by playing video

games (Provenzo's 1991).

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Several studies that explored the impact of using electronic games in

disciplines the students in the range 18-24 for their academic performance such as

mathematics, science, language, geography, and computer science found positive

results in terms of student motivation and learning effectiveness in relation to

curricular objectives. (Papastergiou 2009)

For an adult, there are few impact on them when they are expose in video

games. The following are some of the reported negative effects of electronic gaming

on adult people's health the induction of seizures, tendon injuries, and social

introversion in cases of excessive playing, and aggressive behaviour as a result of

playing violent video games (Walsh 2004).

2.3 MENTAL HEALTH AND VIDEO GAMES

According to David Mechanic (2006), the term "mental health" has no clear or

reliable meaning, and this is generally true in the sociological literature. Mental health

implies more than just the absence of disease or disorder it also requires self-esteem,

mastery, and the ability to maintain meaningful relationships with others.

There are three types of people who have mental health issues. The first are

those who have acute mental health problems, such as normal depression after a loss

or other stressful event. Those in the second group have more severe mental health

problems or chronic conditions but can maintain normal role functioning. The third

group consists of people who have serious, chronic mental illnesses that cause

significant functional disability (Mechanic 2009).

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It has been established that mental health and mental disease are not opposing

sides of a single continuum rather, they define independent but connected axes

(Keyes, 2005). Wellbeing is also perceived differently in other domains and research

disciplines (Camfield, Streuli, & Woodhead, 2009) , as well as by different cultural or

socioeconomic groupings (Manderson, 2005). Furthermore, the link between mental

health and happiness is defined as a wellbeing considered a component of mental

health according to (Hanlon & Carlisle, 2013) but it is also considered a component

of general well-being (Lehtinen,2005).

From the previous research video games are such a popular and powerful

medium due to a variety of causes. However, video games primarily evoke strong

emotional reactions in their participants, such as fear, power, aggressiveness,

astonishment, or joy. These feelings are created by video game designers by balancing

a variety of game components such as character attributes, game rewards, barriers,

game narrative, rivalry with other people, and chances for collaboration with other

players. On the other hand, using simulation types of games does not ensure that

players or the teenagers will generate the kinds of understandings that educators might

desire (Thiagarajan 1998).

This can be relate to a cognitive thinking where when the student or teenagers

play video games they will be problematic and addictive use of videogames has been

described using a variety of terms, including internet gaming addiction, compulsive

gaming, videogame dependency, and problematic gaming (Pontes & Griffiths, 2014).

Although many terms have been used to describe excessive and problematic

videogame use, research articles indicate that these terms are largely interchangeable

and all refer to the same disorder (Petry et al., 2015). This can be relate to a cognitive

thinking where when the student or teenagers play video games they will be
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2.4 CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the researcher getting an information from the previous study on

definition of video games, the effect on mental health among students based on their

age and group.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter will explains on the research design of this study particularly on

methodology and procedures of the research to answer the three research questions. It

will also include the data collection, data analysis and the informants that involve in

this research.

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design is the draft and the plan what to for the next step in the collecting

data. When the researcher or investigator is investigating a new topic of study or

attempting to identify and theories significant concerns, qualitative research

methodology is seen to be appropriate. Qualitative methodologies are the

philosophical perspectives, assumptions, postulates, and approaches that researchers

use to open up their work for analysis, critique, replication, repetition, and/or

adaptation, as well as to select research methods. In this context, qualitative

methodologies refer to research approaches as the tools that researchers use to design

their studies as well as collect and analyse data (Given, 2008). The most frequent

forms of qualitative approaches are interviewing and observation, which are designed

to provide an in-depth and comprehensive knowledge of situations through textual

interpretation. This is the most popular data gathering format in qualitative research

(Oakley, 2014). According to (Oakley,2014) a qualitative interview is a framework in

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which practice and standards are not just recorded, but also attained, questioned, and

reinforced.

3.3 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS

Majority of qualitative research interviews are semi-structured, minimally structured,

or in-depth. Semi-structured interviews convey highly meaningful narratives by

transforming questions about a given topic into storytelling meetings (Hollway &

Jefferson, 1997). This interview is interpreted as 'talking,' and talking is natural

(Griffee, 2005).

Unstructured interviews are often recommended while undertaking long-term

field work because they allow informant to express themselves in their own manner

and at their own leisure, with little restriction on respondents' replies (Syed

Muhammad 2019). It is similar to a free-flowing conversation between the

researcher and the respondent, with no previous term for the specific topics and

relative depth of discussion (John Wiley 2015) .Specifically, an unstructured interview

is like a conversation rathermore than an interview and is always assumed to be a

"managed dialogue" oriented towards the interviewer's interests. Non-directive

interviews, a type of unstructured interview, are designed to elicit detailed information

and typically lack a pre-planned set of questions. In this research the researcher will

obtain the information casually because the informant will be more likely close and

really willing to share their experiences without any hesitation. Although the

researcher will be more like having a conversation but still use the semi structured

interview to control the topic and questions.

Semi structured interviews are in-depth interviews in which informant must

answer well before open-ended questions. Semi structured, in-depth interviews are

frequently used as an interviewing format, either with a person or with a group (Given
 15

2008). These sorts of interviews are usually done only once, with a person or a group,

and last from 30 minutes to more than an hour. Semi-structured interviews are based

on a semi-structured interview guide, which is a schematic presentation of questions

or subjects that the interviewer must investigate (Corbin J. 2008). These are the

questions for the inteviews

General questions

1. Why do you play video games?

2. How long have you been playing video games?

3. What kind of video games do you usually play? Which one do you like

the most?

RQ1:

What are the factors affecting teenager mental health when playing video

games?

1. What are the effects of playing video games? (on the informant himself

and in general)

2. How do you perceive about the effects?

RQ2:

How much the amount of time students spend playing video games afffect

their mental health

1. How long do you usually spend time playing video games?

2. What kind of video games do you usually play?

3. Is there any effects on the time spent playing video games? (i.e.

academic performance, communication skills, self-confident, etc)

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RQ3:

How does video game help the student to cope with their mental health?

1. Do you think playing video games can affect mental health issues

among players?

2. What are the issues/problem that you know or happened to you? (i.e.

stress, addiction, sleeping and eating disorder)

3. Explain briefly on question no 2, ( if any.)

4. How can a player cope with these mental health issues, (if any) and

still.

3.4 IDENTIFYING INFORMANTS

The informant that has been selected based on their experience in playing games and

their background of students. It also based on their familiarity in video games for

about 1-2 years including their involvement in tournament video games. The

informant also should be active player and interested in many kind of video games.

The researcher choose only 3 informant because after filtering all the students, only 3

informant accurate to the criteria.

Random sampling are use at the first stage the researcher pick randomly the

student from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia which is consist of 5 male, and familiar

with the video games. Next, purporsive random sampling was adopted to filter a

group of male students. The researcher filtering based on criteria which is male and

had experience in professional gamer which they are experienced in one video games

and consistent player as well as they involve in tournament. It is easy to get an

information from the informant that has been specified. The interview were executed

online through Microsoft Team as a main platform. Three interview were executed
 17

separately, at time so the informant and the researcher are more focused on the details

of the answers without disturbing noise.

3.5 DATA COLLECTION

The data collection were carried out an interview with the studenst that has been

choosen based on their specific criteria that has been identified. First, getting their

contact number to propose and ask to set time and place. At first, the students seems

very busy and they ask the researcher what kind of interview will be held. After the

researcher explain everything regarding the interview. They agreed to participate as

informants. The researcher created a group in the Microsoft Team easy to place a data

at one place, before the researcher conduct an interview, the researcher dry run to

make sure everything smooth including the microphone and sound clear. Next the

researcher copied a link to distribute to the informants separately. After all has been

set up, the first session start with Adam as the first informant. The next session follow

up with Ali and for the last session is Ahmad. The interview execute with online on

Microsoft team. The duration each interview for about 20 minutes.

During the interview the challenges is line networking problem every five

minute at the beginning. However, all the question was answered by the three

informants clearly because everytime when we had a communication problems they

will ask politely to repeat the questions.

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3.6 DATA ANALYSIS

All the data was gathered from the informants from the recorded interview sessions.

For the next step the researcher listen to the recorded interview and start to transcribe

to make it easy for analyses. The informant answer based on the semi structured

question during the interview. Somehow, there was a bit problem on the sound of the

recorded interviews but the informants had willingly to share again the answers in the

Whatsapp application. Before the interview occured, all the question has been checked

by Madam Rosidayu, supervisor of this research. In that case, the question secured

and filtered. In addition during the interview session, the researcher taking notes

which make it easier to documented if the information encrypted purposely. The

researcher analyse all the information by transcribe all the conversation in the

recorded video manually. The ability of a researcher to perceive and make sense of

collective or shared meanings and experiences. The goal of Thematic Analysis is not

to identify unique and idiosyncratic meanings and experiences found only within a

single data item. This method, then, is a way of identifying and making sense of what

is common to the way a topic is discussed or written about (Oakley 2004).

3.7 CONCLUSION

In this chapter the researcher were discussing on research design, identifying

informants, questions for the interviews, data collection and data analysis.
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CHAPTER 4 : FINDINGS

4.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter, it contains the result of this study based on data collection that the

researcher gathered from the three informants interviewed. The researcher analysis the

data according to the research questions which are factors affecting students’ mental

health intensity of playing games on mental health and their coping approaches in

managing mental health.

4.2 RESULT ANALYSIS

From the interview conducted there are four theme come out from the informants

answer which is factors affecting mental health,

4.2.1 FACTORS AFFECTING MENTAL HEALTH

The students are always being a picky when it comes to involve in any video games.

They are really matured in choosing what type of video games that suit to them to play

with. The result find out that they are very aware and concern their mental health in

choosing types of video games. They will survey and try out first certain video games

for few minutes and then they will find out either the video games will make their

stress level decrease or increase. For an example, if they are having a worse day in
 20

College, they will gather together to play as team. They also said, video games is a fun

activity to cope with their mental health such as to socialize and reduce stress.

“If me and my friend were having stress and anxiety we choose to play

together because it is fun activity, it is an great escape for us but surely depend on

what types of games we play. Usually I choose the mobile games which all of us can

be a team and work together to achive a victory” (Ahmad)

4.2.2 INTENSITY OF PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

The informant were asked regarding their time per day in playing video games. The

informant mentioned that playing video games affected their time to study, to eat and

sleeping pattern. Their time to study will be lesser than usual because when they

playing video games, they have specific times to check the games either it is time to

attach or to push the rank, same goes to their time to eat and sleeping pattern. All the

players are more alert on the video games rather than their basic need.

“ While I was on holiday or during class, I used to play video games at

least 2 – 3 hours in a day. Sometimes the longest time I can play video games almost

eight hour without realize. It kind of addiction but so hard to reduce the time

especially during classes” (Abu)

The most worriying matter is that their performance in academic were also

effected. They will be late to go to the class, in the class they will be sleepy because

sleep late playing video games. In addition, they also had a problem missed deadline
 21

of assignments. The causes of perceived time loss when playing video games it may

be related to aspects of escape, immersion, and arousal.

However, we do not know if different types of video games for example,

simulations, platform games, role-playing games, and so on cause varying degrees of

perceived time loss. The purpose is to investigate teenager’s perceptions of time while

playing video games, as well as whether or not there would be variations in mood

state before and after playing one of two significantly different video games.

4.2.3. PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

There are many type of psychological factors that highly potential to the players. In

this research the researcher found that three of the informants were having stress and

anxiety. According to Ali he always got stress and depressed during doing his

assignments but then he choose to play a video games instead of doing outdoor

activity. Through this behavior, he unconsciously addict to a certain games. Ali claim

that he used to release his anger in the game playing war games. It one of the

satisfaction of himself.

“When I got an anxiety feelings from people, I want to distance myself so I

play video games but not all video games will help me to reduce the feelings of anxiety

and stress. Sometimes when you lost in a war game that will make more worse.

Instead of that, I like to play relax and chill kind of video games because does not

need to compete with anyone and slowly make me forget the bad feelings” (Fadhli)
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“Did not get enough sleep because while playing video games it will be hard

to stop. I think I started addict with video games since I brave enough to invest my

money to buy an item in video games. It kind of frustrating when you already purchase

the expensive item but you lost, you will try to play again until you won. Then that is

how my satisfaction level increases.” (Hakim)

4.2.4 OTHER FACTORS

Environment theme is the circle or the players attitude while playing the video games

Because based the findings, nowadays many group or community join the games

including the children underage or the people who are known as stranger. They are

likely start to make chaos and did not respect other players. So in this situation it was

a bit disappointed to join the games. On the good side, the graphics in the video

games are very calming in which made the eager to play the games with the great and

profession graphic.

Contrarily according to one of the informant , toxic environment happened in

the video games when the stranger keep throwing bad word when they cannot accept

their lost in the game. They will perceive as negative communication. Furthermore,

their personality while in the video games will lead to a bad behavior for creating

chaos.

“It was a bit turn off when the children at the very young age start to talk bad

thing, not just that. Other than that, the newcomers also showing off their skills and

make chaos every time they got a chance to curse people. For me it is not a healthy

environment to stay in the games. Sometimes there is an option to choose but we never

know the strangers out there.” (Ahmad)

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All the factors which are factors affecting mental health, intensity of playing

video games, psychological factors and others factors are the themes in affecting

teenagers mental health while playing video games. It is either the advantages or

disadvantages.

4.3 CONCLUSION

The data that obtained from the interview explain how it relate the theme which is

factors effecting mental health, intensity of playing video games, psychological

factors, and other factors. From the data the researcher gain the information how does

it effected mental health of the teenagers.

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CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, researcher discuss and analysis the effect of the mental health among

teenagers and make a suggestion for a further research as well as recommendation.

5.2 DISCUSSION

This research emphasize the effects of the mental health among teenagers. Based on

the finding that has been carried out the effect consist of positive and negative effects.

Somehow, aggression and violence, particularly among teenagers indeed, based on

psychological research on the impacts of "gaming" has been on its negative

consequences which is the potential harm associated with violence, addiction, and

despair ( Anderson 2010). The past research show that on the consequences of violent

video games on aggressive behaviour in adolescents which are already exist, and this

is a crucial body of work to adapt. However, we believe that in order to comprehend

the influence of video games on the development of teenagers, a more balanced view

is required, one that includes not only the potential harmful consequences but also the

advantages of playing these games. The data show that majority of the teenagers and

student aware of the negative effects. This happened because they has been

experienced the stress level, the sleeping patter problem, distraction from the games

during class day. In order for them to stay healthy and keep their state of mind

functioning well. They had to control their obsession and addiction to keep their

academic performance maintain. But in certain situation, mental health is depend on

the perception of the teenager on how they perceive their stress and anxiety level to
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overcome the problem. On the other hand, during the interview some of them know

how to cope with the community and socialize in a real world because when they keep

their eyes on the screen, the more pain they will get. The researcher find out that these

teenagers really into the games but at the same time they are still blend in with the

people in their surrounding The most important determining aspect of video games is

that they are dynamic that players cannot passively accept the tale of a game. Instead,

video games are designed to encourage players to actively interact with their systems,

and for these systems to respond to the players' interactional actions. There are

millions of video games available, each with a unique theme and aim. Two informants

are mature enough to handle the games and the other player while they are in the

game. But, one of the informants which is Hakim were not really serious in the war

game. He is does not care about money that he invest in the game and his addiction

also really into all of the types of games either in the personal computer or mobile

phone. Issues about video game addiction are and perhaps the most common in Asia,

where many believe that games provide such a vivid alternate reality that spending so

much time there alters young, developing brains in unprecedented ways, and that these

changes may be components of a new type of addiction.

5.3 RECOMMENDATION

Throughout this research the researcher having difficulties in gather an information

directly from the informant and taking long time to get the data. The next study should

be done physically for it to be easier getting an information. According to the topic,

the effects on the mental health of student should be more aware of unconsciousness

their mental health. It is because teenagers sometimes do not realize the environment
 26

instead of being alone with the mobile phone. On the other side, even the difficulties

on gathering the information are a bit tough but the informants really helpful. This

research accurately collect the data on effects deeply by the research questions. Hence,

the information were not out of topic.

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