The Relationship between the Amount of Playing Computer Games and Student's Mental Health and Academic Performance

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between playing computer games and students’ mental health and academic performance. Regarding the purpose، the research was applied، and the method of performing was descriptive and correlational. The statistical society included 1576 boy secondary school students in Galikesh town، Golestan province in academic year 2011-2012. Using Krejcie and Morgan table، 310 people were selected as the sample via stratified random sampling with respect to base distribution. The data has been collected via two questionnaires: SCL-25 public health questionnaire with reliability of 0. 88 and standardized questionnaire (to gather information about the amount and type of computer games) with reliability of 0. 826. To analyze the data، Chi-Square test، t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between computer games and students’ mental health. There was also significant relationship between computer games and students’ academic performance. There was no meaningful difference between the types of computer games (simple/violent) and mental health. Students’ academic performance had meaningful relationship with the type of computer games. It is، therefore، imperative that parents should be more careful about the amount and the type of computer games that children play.