The Relationship Between Online Competitive/Collaborative Electronic Gaming and Psychological Security Among Adolescents with Sleep Disorders

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the timeframes during which online electronic games are played, reveal the preferred types of games, determine the devices used for gaming, specify the daily duration spent by adolescents with sleep disorders on gaming, uncover the major risks of gaming for these adolescents, and explore their preferences for either competitive or collaborative games. Additionally, the study investigated the relationship between the motivations and reasons for gaming and psychological security, as well as comparing competitive and collaborative gamers in terms of psychological security and their perception of the impacts of gaming.

The sample consisted of (122) male adolescents with sleep disorders aged between (16 to 18) years. The instruments used included the Online Gaming Questionnaire for Adolescents (The researchers), the Psychological Security Scale for Adolescents (The researchers), the Colored Progressive Matrices by Raven (Hassan, 2020), and the Socioeconomic and Cultural Status Scale for Families (Al-Beheiry, 2024).

The findings revealed that (94.26%) adolescents with sleep disorders play electronic games during holidays, Sports games were most played type, accounting for (76.22%), and (75.41%) used device was smartphone, most of participants (32.79%) reported spending an average of three hours daily on gaming. Additionally, (50.82%) of the adolescents indicated that increased tension was the most significant risk associated with gaming, and (51.64%) preferred collaborative games exclusively. The results also revealed a significant positive correlation between gaming motivations and reasons (entertainment and fun, social interaction, competition and achievement, learning and skill development, coping with stress, and the overall score) and psychological security dimensions (self-acceptance, belongingness, perceived social support, meaning of life, and the overall score). Furthermore, there were statistically significant differences between competitive and collaborative gamers on Psychological Security Scale for Adolescents, for collaborative gamers. Additionally, significant differences were found between competitive and collaborative gamers in their perception of the impacts of gaming; collaborative gamers were more aware of the positive impacts, while competitive gamers were more aware of the negative impacts.