The Impact of Playing Video Games on General Health and Academic Performance of Fasa Mid Schools Boy Students

Background and Objective: The game is the most basic activity of children and at the same time. Video games have inevitably devoted a major part of children and adolescents time playing rather than dealing with social interactions. Along with this line of argument, the present study aimed at determining the effect of video games on general health and academic performance of boy students at Iranian secondary school level. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was carried out on 150 boy students at secondary school level in Fasa, Fars Province, I. R. Iran. The subjects were selected by multistage sampling method. The data were collected by using a three-part questionnaire including demographic information, information about how to use video games and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). The collected data were then analyzed by using SPSS version 22, descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, t-test and Chi-square test. The significance level was considered to be less than 0.05 (P<0.05). Findings: The findings of the research showed that there is a significant relationship between the amount of video game use and general health (P=0.03); a significant relationship between the amount of video game use and academic performance of the students (P<0.001). There was; however, no significant relationship between the general health of the students with the type of game played (P=0.37). There is also a significant relationship between students academic performance and the type of video game used (P<0.001). Conclusion: Based on the findings of present research, it can be concluded that video games can play a crucial role on the general health and academic performance of the students. Therefore, it is vital that parents pay more attention on the volume of time and type of games their children play.

کلیدواژه ها:

video games ، general health ، academic performance ، students ، boy