Abstract:
This study was survey research aiming to study the situation of and factors affecting game
addiction behavior of junior high school students in Nakhon Si Thamarat province by applying the PRECEDE
Model for developing a conceptual framework to analyze the variables of concern. The sample was composed
of 505 junior high school students in Nakhon Si Thamarat province, and were selected by using a multi-stage
sampling method. The independent variables were : demographic characteristics regarding sex, educational
level, school achievement, family income; predisposing factors regarding perceived negative outcomes of game
addiction and self-esteem; enabling factors such as whether there are game shops nearby a school, whether
there are game shops nearby a students house, the convenience of going to a game shop, the atmosphere of a
game shop, cost of utilization, availability of a game machine at home, places for performing community
activities, disturbances while playing games at home, availability of home-internet, and game-advertisements;
reinforcing factors regarding the game playing relationship among friends, family relationships, and the
parents child rearing pattern. The dependent variable was game addiction behavior, which was grouped into 3
categories: normal, seriously addicted, and likely to be addicted.
The results of the study showed that 84.95 percent of the sampled junior high school students were
in the normal group of game addiction behavior, while 11.08 percent and 3.96 percent were in the seriously
addicted and likely to be addicted groups respectively. The factors that were found to be significantly related to
game addiction behavior (p-value<0.05) were sex, atmosphere of a game shop, availability of a game machine at
home, disturbances while playing games at home, and the parents child-rearing pattern. A significantly positive
relationship was found between game addiction behavior and the game-playing relationship among friends (pvalue<
0.05), while significantly negative relationships were found between game addiction behavior and the
factors regarding self-esteem and family relationship (p-value<0.05). The first factors that were found to be able to
predict game addiction behavior were : availability of a game machine at home, game-playing relationship among
friends, self-esteem, family relationship, and perceived negative outcomes of game addiction, whereby all 5
factors have been show able to explain 41.5 percent of drug addiction behavior significantly (p-value<0.001).
Based on these research findings, it is suggested that in order to solve the problem of game
addiction behavior effectively, a plan should be systematically developed by directing various measures at the
individual, family, school, and societal levels, and with the cooperation of all concerned partners.