Abstract

The purpose of this research is to present the relationship of teenagers’ internet gaming disorder (IGD) with their levels of internet addiction and loneliness, as well as to test the created model in terms of these relations. This research analyzes the predictive relationships among adolescents’ IGD, internet addiction and loneliness through the statistics program in accordance with the structural equation model. The research’s study group has been selected among teenage students in different schools in Ankara, during the 2018-2019 academic years using the random sampling method. Of the students, 305 are male and 101 are female. The participants were 406 students (males = 75.12%, female = 24.87%, Mage = 15.63 years, SDage = 1.11) aged between 14 and 18 years. The variables predicting IGD are internet addiction (β = 0.54) and loneliness (β = 0.11). Additionally, loneliness significantly predicts internet addiction (β = 0.24, p <0.01).

Key words: Internet gaming disorder, internet addiction, loneliness, adolescents.