Problematic Online Gaming Among a Sample of University Students in Egypt

Objectives: Despite the undeniable benefits of the internet, it can still be harmful sometimes. Problematic internet use has been of interest to researchers for years. However, lately, more focus was given to online gaming. Subjects and Methods: In total, 996 students were recruited from 6 faculties in Ain Shams University. After obtaining personal data including data about academic achievement, students were assessed using Socioeconomic Status Scale, Young Internet Addiction Test, and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale. Results: The mean age of the students was 19.6 years (±1.6 SD), and the majority of the sample were female individuals (55.9%). As regards internet addiction (IA), only 3.4% had severe dependence, while 41.5% and 40.7% had mild and moderate dependence, respectively. Around quarter of the sample experienced problematic gaming, with disordered gamers constituting 9.3% of the sample and risky gamers 15.9% of the sample, while the rest were normal gamers. A weak negative correlation was found between age and both IA and internet gaming. There was a significant relation between IA and academic achievement. No correlation was detected between academic achievement and IA or internet gaming. Conclusions: IA was detected in >80% of the sample, while problematic gaming was detected in around quarter of the sample. A significant relation was found between academic achievement and IA, but not with internet gaming disorder. Neither IA nor problematic online gaming could be correlated to academic achievement.