IDENTIFYING VIDEO GAME ADDICTION IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

There is a current trend of thought among some scholars of gambling th at arcade video game playing in some adolescents may develop into a be havior which resembles a gambling addiction. A scale, developed to ide ntify arcade video game addiction in adolescents, was administered to 467 secondary school children in a coastal town in the UK. Initial psy chometric tests show that the scale has acceptable internal consistenc y reliability and factorial validity, and is significantly related to alternative means of assessing excessive video game play. The implicat ions of the study findings are discussed together with its limitations and suggestions for future research.