Comparison of Self-Control, Sleep Quality, Gender and Economic Status Among Students Who Use Problematic and Non-Problematic Online Games

Online games have affected the lives of many people, including students. Playing for a long time is associated with self-control and sleep quality. The purpose of this study was to compare self-control, sleep quality, sexual difference and economic status of students who use problematic and non-problematic online games in West Azerbaijan.

The research method is descriptive-comparative. The statistical population was all tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade students of West Azerbaijan. The sampling method of this research is multi-stage cluster. Six schools and 36 classes were selected as the final sample of the research. The total number of subjects who use problematic and non-problematic online games was 544. The Research tools include demographic questionnaire, “Tangney’s Self-control Scale”, “Pittsburgh’s Sleep Quality Index”, “Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire”, Which had validity and reliability confirmed in previous studies. Also, data was analyzed using SPSS software version 24.

In terms of self-control, students who use problematic online games are weaker than students who use non-problematic online games (P≥0.01). Among the dimensions related to sleep quality, people who use problematic online games have a lower mental quality of sleep (P ≥ 0.01); have sleep disturbances and day time dysfunctions (P ≥ 0.01). In terms of gender, boy students were more problematic on online games than girls (P≥0.05). However, in terms of economic status, there was no difference between students who use problematic and non-problematic online games.

Students who use problematic online games are weak in terms of self-control and have a lower quality of sleep, more sleep disturbances and more day time dysfunctions. Therefore, it is suggested that by training behavior self-control, which leads to the implementation of self-monitoring, self-assessment and self-reinforcement methods, strengthen self-control and sleep quality in students.