Comparing the Components of Psychological Well-Being and Emotional Intelligence in Players with and Without Computer Game Addiction in Secondary School Students of Alborz City: A Descriptive Study

Computer games have become an important part of teenagers' lives. These games have positive and negative consequences, including addiction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the components of psychological well-being and emotional intelligence in players with and without addiction to computer games.

The present research method is descriptive and the statistical population included all the students of secondary schools (second period) in the academic year of 1401-1402 in Alborz City; from this population, first, by multi-stage random cluster method and then by purposive method and by implementing a Game Addiction Scale (Game Addiction Scale; GAS-7) on computer game players, 112 participants were selected as the target sample (56 participants with addiction and 56 participants without addiction). After removing incomplete and outlier data, 51 participants remained in each group (102 in total). In addition to GAS-7, Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (RPWS-18) and Wong Law’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-16) were also implemented. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test was used for the final analysis of the data.

The results showed that addicted players scored significantly less in all psychological well-being components than the comparison group (p<0.001). Also, they obtained lower scores in the use and regulation of emotions (p<0.001).

Based on the results, players with addiction had weaker psychological well-being and emotional intelligence than the comparison group. Based on this, by identifying students with addiction, educational measures to improve emotional intelligence and well-being in secondary schools seem necessary.