Author(s): Shivani Singh and Shalini Agarwal

Abstract:
Adolescence is a period of transition from the child to adulthood that includes mental maturity, emotional, social and physical. In the rapid changing in technical world of today the adolescents are exposed to diverse recreation with regard to online gaming. The course of time outdoor games have been substituted by indoor games which in turn has been out rightly done away with by online games. Rapid expansion of electronic gadgets has come to pose a major threat to the adolescents, leading to measure physical and psychological breakdown. Online gaming has literally broken down child to child interaction which is both emotional and sentimental. Online gaming has converted a child into an automaton. Online gaming popularity is increasing day by day. In India, there are about 66% Youth in India and majority of them are addicted to online gaming and they are not aware of the ill effects of online gaming. These games are readily available at no cost, at all place and all times. The study was conducted with the aim to assess online gaming addiction in adolescents across gender. The study was conducted in Lucknow city. A self made pre tested interview schedule was used to collect general information and some specific information like category of games enjoyed by adolescents, Online gaming addiction among adolescents. The data was first coded, tabulated, decoded and analyzed by applying descriptive as well as relational statistical tools in order to get the inference. Descriptive statistics calculated to have frequency percentages and correlation coefficient. It was concluded that nearly half of the respondents (49.02 percent boys & 42 percent girls) were moderately addicted to online games. There was negative correlation between gender and online gaming addiction.