Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined online game addiction into one of the medical conditions in 2018 under the category of Gaming disorder. Playing online games excessively may be related to both physical and psychological health. The problem of online game addiction and its impact on adolescent’s mental health is still not sufficiently documented. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between online game addiction and depression in adolescents from 6 High Schools in 4 districts/cities of Indonesia. This study is a quantitative research with cross-sectional design as a further analysis of the 2019 School-Based Mental Health Intervention Study. This study involved students of grade 10 and 11 at 6 public high schools in Bogor Regency, Bogor City, City of Central and South Jakarta. The statistical analysis used was multiple logistic regression test. Out of 746 students, 12.9% were depressed and 10.3% were addicted to online games. There was a significant relationship between online game addiction towards depression with OR = 2.44 (95% CI: 1.259-4.735) after being controlled for sex, learning difficulties, age, father's education, and mother's education. Schools are the best institutions that can be used for adolescent depression screening. It is expected that provision of mental health service facilities in school as one of the strategies to overcome online gaming addictions.

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