Role of excessive use of internet games on anxiety and depression among college students

Pages: 388-392
Partha Malakar (Department of Psychology, South Calcutta Girls College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)
Anuja Chakravorty (Educational Counsellor, Globalnexs)
Debasish Sanyal (Department of Psychiatry, KPC Medical College, Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal)

In present day society individuals linger by being uncertain about the usefulness of internet gaming which created the emergency to study that in what extend its uses remain beneficial for the mankind. The study aims at examining how excessive internet gaming behavior influences the development of anxiety and depression among college students. Data were collected from undergraduate college students (100 males &100 females with 18-22 years of age) of Kolkata city. Anxiety, depression and internet gaming use were assessed with the help of Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and Internet Gaming Disorder Test (IGD-20 Test). Results indicated that difference between two genders (boys vs girls) and two groups (high & low gamers) were significant in case of both anxiety and depression but their interaction (gender*group) was significant only in case of anxiety. Excessive internet gaming exerts harmful effect in psychological functioning as anxiety and depression were higher among high gamers. Females were more affected than males.