THE IMPACT OF ONLINE GAMING ADDICTION ON

MENTAL HEALTH AMONG CATARMAN NATIONAL

SENIOR HIGHSCHOOL STUDENTS

TEDDIE N. MORILLO JR.

GRADE 12 – STEM RUBY
INTRODUCTION
In this modern era, the use of the Internet has become widely popular. The Internet has
become a powerful tool for connecting people, information, ideas, resources, and services. In
2020 Published by Statista Research Department, about 73 percent of the population in the
Philippines was using the internet. The Internet can drastically turn from a productive to a
destructive endeavor. It serves as an enabler for people to play online games, disrupting
everyday life, personal relationships, and work. Syracuse University on the Science Daily
website (2007) stated that Internet games might have negative implications, particularly in
students’ lives, since it can adversely affect mental health, social life, and academic
performance. center stage in many people’s lives as they can obtain a myriad of information
from it. Attractions to video games among young people could lead them to many problems
involving social, emotional, and physical health. These effects trigger mental and physical
damage, violence, anger, and social isolation. Such issues have caught the attention of mental
health professionals and psychologists to focus on the effects of online games.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Online gaming addiction among students in universities is not a trivial issue as it can lead to
mental health if not addressed properly. Thus, the Ministry of Education (MOE) might gain
by looking at the seriousness of online gaming among students, especially Muslim students
who are not supposed to waste time unnecessarily, which can harm their physical and mental
health. Given that students can obtain a vast amount of knowledge from the new media, they
should be able to control themselves by using their spare time beneficially as long as the new
media helps in their academic performance and in maintaining their physical health.
Therefore, the university authority should organize talks if students’ health is deteriorating
and they cannot focus in class. An intervention strategy should be planned if there is any
complaint from lecturers regarding poor concentration and focus among the students.
There are five points will be discussed in Literature Review in which online game addiction,
mental health, depression and internet gaming disorder, social anxiety and online gaming
addiction and loneliness of mobile game addiction.

1. Online Game Addiction

Online games are a popular technology that has lately become a concern, especially among
youths, as it can lead to addiction (Charlton & Danforth, 2010; Huh & Bowman, 2008). In
general, this technology addiction involves a maladaptive psychological aspect, although its
adaptability depends on the types of online games that offer different kinds of obsessive
compulsive patterns, which may attract a player to the extent of neglecting their important
duty in life. Jeong and Kim (2011) found that young people nowadays opt for the virtual
world rather than the real world to satisfy their desire in gaming. Therefore, addiction to
Internet gaming is a mental disorder that has been identified and described in several ways.
Griffiths (2005) claimed that bio-psychosocial mechanisms contribute to addiction. Such
addiction may include Internet gaming, which comprises actions in adjusting the mood
through individual behavior, tolerance, the occurrence of symptoms of withdrawal at the end
of the activity, and interpersonal and intrapersonal issues as a result of the individual’s
actions and experience.

2. Mental Health
Mental disorders are general and exist in every country (World Health Organization [WHO],
2001). According to Fowlerr, Tompsett, and Braciszewski (2009), a relationship between
depression and violent content in video games is possible. This implies that adults and
children tend to be exposed to violence in real-life, whether as witnesses or victims. They
also have poor mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic
stress disorder (PSD). WHO recently recognized gaming disorder as a mental health
condition and added it to the international medical list. Playing online games incessantly is
not enough to be recognized as a disease. Instead, mental illness always arises when the
players play online games for an extended period to the extent that it affects their daily lives
(Rettner, 2019). Therefore, gaming disorder is a “pattern of chronic or repetitive gaming
activity,” which causes the players to lose control of their gaming actions; they start
considering gaming as a priority over all other interests and behaviors, leading to continued
playing even though they may suffer from its negative consequences. Such consequences
may include disabilities in social life as well as in education and family relationships
(Rettner, 2019).

3. Depression and Internet Gaming Disorder

Stetina (2011) found that depression positively relates to Internet Gaming Addiction (IGA)
and technological addiction. However, IGD behaviors can also be favored because they are
often considered to be less dangerous than other types of addiction (Yen, 2007). Online
games are often played by people who have emotional distress. In the long term, heavy usage
can isolate people from real-life relationships, leading to a more serious mental health issue:
depression (King & Delfabbro, 2016). A previous study supported a positive relationship
between online gaming addiction and depression (Liu et al., 2018). Similarly, Wang, Sheng,
and Wang (2019) revealed that online gaming addiction leads to severe depression.
Therefore, this indicates that there is a positive relationship between online gaming addiction
and depression.

4. Social Anxiety and Online Gaming Addiction

Social anxiety among young people occurs because of their bad experience and tension
(Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). Maldonado, Huang, Chen, Kasen, Cohen, and Shen (2016) found
a relationship between adolescents’ social anxiety and online gaming addiction. Online
gaming addiction, smartphone addiction, and Internet addiction were also found to be related
to social anxiety among adults. Addiction and anxiety can affect one another.
Internet addiction has five categories, which are online gaming addiction, net compulsions,
cyber-relationship addiction, information overload, and cybersex addiction. Internet addiction
increases anxiety, especially when the Internet is not available, or its accessibility is
dysfunctional.
 5. Loneliness and Mobile Game Addiction
Loneliness is a global issue faced by many people to some degree in their lives. It is a
negative experience that people go through. The cause of loneliness is the lack of excitement
in some people’s lives, resulting from major defects in their social interaction network. Salehi
and Seyf (2012) stated that loneliness is an uncomfortable feeling that triggers behavioral
issues in which depression, sadness, withdrawal, and anger are exhibited. Perlman (2004)
claimed that loneliness occurs due to a lack of social experience. People have very low self-
esteem if they feel very lonely, resulting from the absence of productive and supportive
relationships. In this situation, they tend to use cyberspace and the Internet to play online
games rather than communicating interpersonally through social interaction. They tend to use
the Internet as a defense mechanism and as an alternative to avoid becoming lonely.

METHOTOLOGY

1. Research Design
The quantitative research design was employed in this study, along with the survey method
involving an online questionnaire for data collection. This study selected IIUM students as
the respondents. The respondents came from various backgrounds in terms of gender, age,
education level, kulliyyah (faculty), level of study, year of study, and their nationality.

2. Population and Sampling Procedure

CNSH students were chosen as the target population of this study. The reason for choosing
them is because this study is about the impact of online gaming addiction on mental health
among students. Hence, CNSH students were good candidates to be the respondents in this
study. A part from that, CNSH students can easily understand because they are all grown up.
The data involved students from different disciplines, as reflected by the faculties in which
they were enrolled. This study applied the network sampling procedure. An online survey
questionnaire was distributed through various WhatsApp groups since the time for data
collection coincided with the Movement Control Order (MCO) due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Hence, it was not possible to reach the students face to face. Furthermore, Hassan
(2016) mentioned that the network sampling procedure can be applied as it is a key statistical
approach and it can help to solve challenges related to physical accessibility.
 3. Instrument and Measurement
The questionnaire consisted of six sections. Section 1 obtained the respondents’ demographic
information such as gender, age, education, nationality, faculty, and the year of study.
Section 2 covered the respondents’ exposure to online gaming with 11 items that explored the
patterns of online gaming, such as the types of online games; the time spent playing online
games per sitting, per day, and per week; and the device used to play online games. Section 3
consisted of 10 items that tried to assess online gaming addiction. An example of the items is
‘I always find a way to play online games.’ Section 4 explored depression, also with 10
items, to assess the extent of being depressed due to online gaming. An example of the items
is ‘I often feel upset whenever I cannot connect with the Internet to play online games.”
Section 5 consisted of 10 items of the respondents’ levels of anxiety where one of the items is
‘I feel nervous if I cannot play online games.’ Lastly, the items in section 6 tapped on the
respondents’ levels of loneliness, for example, ‘I play online games because I have no friends
to talk to.’ The items were all measured using a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 = strongly
disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = slightly agree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.

4. Validity and Reliability Test

The questionnaire was validated and approved by an expert, and a pre-test was conducted
involving 30 respondents via an online Google Form to ensure that the items for each
variable are reliable before the actual study was conducted. Polit (2001) mentioned that
before conducting the actual study, a small-scale version or test must be done as the pilot
study.
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