Examination of parental emotional availability, emotion regulation difficulties and game addiction according to some sociodemographic characteristics among late adolescents

This study aimed to examine whether the participants' perceived parental emotional availability, emotion regulation difficulty and game addiction scores differ according to some sociodemographic characteristics among Turkish late adolescents. A sample of 537adolescents between the ages of 18-21 completed the Parental Emotional Availability Scale, Emotion Regulation Difficulty Scale, Internet Gaming Disorder Short Form, and Sociodemographic Characteristics and Data Form surveys online. Independent two samples t- test and One-Way ANOVA analyses were used to test the hypotheses of the study. Results demonstrated that age, participants’ state of education, inter-parental relationship quality, mothers’ state of education, number of siblings, type of game, playing multiplayer or individual games variables had a significant effect on maternal emotional availability scores (p <.05); participants’ state of education, inter-parental relationship quality, father’s state of education, parental marriage or separation, people living together, type of game variables had a significant effect on paternal emotional availability scores (p <.05); gender, age, inter- parental relationship quality, regular activity, financial gain from gaming variables had a significant effect on difficulty in emotion regulation scores (p <.05); and also gender, inter- parental relationship quality, daily playing time and type of game variables had a significant effect on game addiction scores (p <.05). There was no significant difference in participant scores according to other variables. The findings indicate the importance of some variables, and contribute to future research that will examine the relevant variables.