IDENTIFYING VIDEO GAME ADDICTION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

There is a current trend of thought among some scholars of gambling that arcade video game playing in some adolescents may develop into a behavior which resembles a gambling addiction. A scale, developed to identify arcade video game addiction in adolescents, was administered to 467 secondary school children in a coastal town in the UK. Initial psychometric tests show that the scale has acceptable internal consistency reliability and factorial validity, and is significantly related to alternative means of assessing excessive video game play. The implications of the study findings are discussed together with its limitations and suggestions for future research.