Survey study reveals digital game addiction links to gaming frequency and paternal education in preschoolers, indicating game preferences do not drive dependency.
Key Points
To evaluate digital game addiction tendencies among preschool children aged 5–6 in relation to their gaming preferences and sociodemographic variables.
Cross-sectional quantitative survey model evaluating N=258 children aged 5–6 years attending Ministry of National Education preschools in Ağrı, Turkey.
Assessed device choices, favorite game types, gameplay perceptions, and demographic variables such as parental education levels.
Smartphones were the most preferred gaming device and role-playing games were the most favored genre, with characters and objects representing the most liked in-game elements.
Addiction tendencies differed significantly based on gaming frequency and paternal education level, but showed no significant differences by child age, gender, or maternal education level.
Variables related to specific digital game preferences exhibited no statistically significant effect on digital game addiction tendencies.