Excessive Game-Playing and Children's Academic Performance in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract

People are uncertain about the role of excessive electronic game-playing on children's academic performance. It is on this premise that this study examines the effects of excessive electronic game-playing on children's academic performance in Port Harcourt. The study use survey and quasi-experiment to sample 371 students of Junior Secondary school 1-3 who are within the age brackets of 10-12. Based on the problem and objectives of the study, research questions were formulated. Research question one to know the extent of excessive game-playing among the children, while research question two sought ascertain the relationship between excessive game-playing and the academic performance of children. A null hypothesis was also formulated and tested with the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient with the level of significance tested at 0.5 level of significance. The findings showed that a proportion of the sampled population met the criterion of addiction and the majority of the children were still non-frequent gamers. The result also showed that there is a negative correlation between excessive game-playing and academic performance as the majority of the very high scorers in tests administered on the children were from the category labelled as non-frequent and low frequent gamers. The null hypothesis that said 'there is no significant relationship between extent of excessive play and academic performance was rejected, as the r-value was -0.27. Based on these findings, it was recommended that parents should monitor their children's gaming habits and that governments should control the importation of entertainment games and encourage more of educational games.