Detecting the Level of Addiction of Kindergartens’ Children to Electronic Games in Diyala Generate

Abstract

Children adore electronic games. They spend a lot of their time, which might reach to the extent of being addiction, on playing them because of the elements of excitement and challenge. Addiction to electronic games forms a great threat to children and can lead to psychological disorders because children spend most of their time playing. These games cannot build social relationships among individuals.

The current research aims to identify:

1) The level of addiction of kindergartens’ children to electronic games.

2) The level of addiction of kindergartens’ children to electronic games depending on the gender variable (male - female).

3) The comparison of the level of addiction of kindergartens’ children to electronic games according to the residential area in the cities of "Baquba and Al- Khalis".

To achieve this, the researchers adopted the analytical descriptive approach, where a measure of addiction to electronic games was built and obtained the validity and stability. The exploratory sample reached to 20 children randomly selected and re-tested.

The main sample consisted of (160) children (boys and girls) and randomly selected from four kindergartens, two from Baqouba district and two from Al-Khalis district; 20 children from each kindergarten. To tackle with the data of the research, the researchers adopted a number of the statistical means and the statistical package for social sciences SPSS. The following are the results:

1) There are no statistically significant differences between playing electronic games and addiction.

2) There are no statistically significant differences between playing electronic games according to the residential area in "Al- Khalis and  Baquba" districts.

3) There are statistically significant differences between playing electronic games and sex in favor of males.

In the light of these results, the researchers came up with a number of recommendations and suggestions

Recommendations:

1) Directing the official authorities and the relevant regulatory bodies to pay attention to the dangers of electronic games and to establish controls and conditions for their use by children, similar to the countries of the world.

2) Alert the family "parents" to the physical, emotional and social risks of addiction to electronic games.

Suggestions:

1) Conducting an explanatory study to reduce addiction to electronic games.

2) Conducting a study to determine the level of spread of electronic games among children in advanced ages (9-12) years, for example in Diyala governorate.