Internet Gaming Disorder and Its Relationships With Student Engagement and Academic Performance

Recently, the research community increased its investigations of the student engagement construct in association with learning and academic success. Some scholars linked student engagement to higher academic performance, higher retention rates, and lower delinquency rates. However, the spread of gaming among learners is thought to hinder student engagement. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature by investigating the association among gaming disorder, student engagement, academic performance, and gamer-related characteristics, in a tertiary context on a sample of 345 university students using the internet gaming disorder (IGD-20) test and an 18-item assessment of student engagement based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. Student engagement was significantly negatively predictive of gaming disorder, whereas the latter was significantly negatively predictive of cumulative GPA. The implications of the findings for future research and recommendations are discussed.