Investigation of nursing students' addiction to digital game play and associated factors

It was conducted to investigate digital gaming addiction among nursing students and the associated factors of such addiction.

The descriptive and relationship-seeking study's universe included 1665 nursing students in three universities' nursing faculties and departments. The sample size was determined to be 774 based on a power analysis with a type I error rate of 0.05, a power of the test of 0.80 (α = 0.05, 1-β = 0.80), and an effect size of d = 0.10. Student Information Form, The Digital Game Addiction Scale (DGAS-7), and the Digital Game Playing Motivation Scale (DGPMS) were used to collect student information. Data analysis was performed using the Mann–Whitney U test, Kruskal–Wallis H test, Spearman correlation, and Binary Logistic Regression Model.

It was found that 83.7% of the students were female, and the mean age and BMI were 20.03 ± 1.72 years and 21.98 ± 2.90 kg/m², respectively. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between the students' Digital Game Addiction Scale and Digital Game Playing Motivation Scale Achievement and Energizing (r = 0.717), Curiosity and Social Acceptance (r = 0.612), and Uncertainty in Game Desire (r = -0.110) sub-dimensions mean scores (p < 0.001).

The relationship between nursing students' digital game addiction, game playing motivation, and several individual characteristics affecting digital games was found. The study's results call for further research to focus on developing and testing interventions that could effectively reduce gaming addiction while enhancing positive aspects of digital engagement among nursing students.