The mediator effect of digital game addiction on the relationship between perceived parental attitudes and emotional intelligence among adolescents

Objective: PIt is known that digital game addiction, which has become a problem for adolescents today, is associated with emotional intelligence level and parental attitude. The aim of this study is to investigate whether digital game addiction has a mediator effect on the relationship between perceived parental attitudes and emotional intelligence. Method: This study included 478 high school students between the ages of 14-18. The research data were collected over Sociodemographic Information Form, Digital Game Addiction Scale (DOBO-7), Parenting Attitude Scale (ABTO) and Bar-On Emotional Intelligence Scale Child and Adolescent Form (EQ-i (YV)). Results: Research results indicated that the level of digital game addiction has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between adolescents' acceptance/involvement sub-dimension and emotional intelligence levels. According to the ANCOVA analysis result, the emotional intelligence levels of adolescents with democratic parental attitudes were higher than the others, and emotional intelligence levels of adolescents with authoritarian parental attitudes were lower than the other parental attitudes. Discussion: This research, which shows how important parental attitudes is in the control of digital game addiction, which is seen as an important problem for today's parents, is a guide feature to evaluate the relationship between emotional intelligence capacity that guides children's lives and parental attitude. In order to reflect the objective reality of the findings, future studies should be planned considering the limitations of our research.