– Conjinwon announced the results of a large-scale fact-finding survey that newly introduced the ‘comprehensive game use scale’
– By 2022, 82.7% of the youth game users group and 68.8% of the children game users group
– Parents’ positive perception of game use influences the characteristics of children and adolescents game behavior
On the 4th, the Korea Creative Content Agency (Director Cho Hyun-rae, hereinafter referred to as KOCCA) published a report titled ‘2022 Comprehensive Survey on Children and Youth Game Behavior’, which analyzed the characteristics of game use and types of game behavior targeting children and adolescents nationwide on the 4th.
This survey was conducted targeting 100,000 adolescent students, 20,000 child students, and parents across the country to identify the actual conditions of game use and over-indulgence of children and adolescents and use them as the basis for policy establishment to create a healthy game culture.
The 2022 survey is a reorganization of the existing ‘Comprehensive Survey on Over-immersion in Games’. KOCCA developed a new scale to enhance the reliability of the survey in line with the rapidly changing media environment and introduced it to the 2022 survey after validation. The results of this year’s survey will be used as basic data for policies for healthy game culture for children and youth, such as game literacy education or game culture family camps in the future.
◆ The first introduction of the ‘comprehensive game use scale’ that can comprehensively measure youth game use
using the comprehensive game use scale comprehensively investigates the positive/negative effects of games. It is characterized by the fact that survey results can be calculated in detail based on statistical standard scores.
The overall scale of game use is composed of three subscales: ▲game literacy, ▲game use problem, and ▲game desire satisfaction. ▲Game literacy is measured based on 6 factors, including an understanding of games and interest in IT; problems using games are measured on 3 factors, including failure to control and problems in daily life; and ▲satisfaction of game needs on 7 factors, including autonomy and fostering virtual characters.
◆ 82.7% of teenagers and 68.8% of children belong to the game user group
As a result of the youth survey, ▲ 82.7% of the game users group ▲ and 17.3% of the non-use group. Among the game user group, ▲the general user group accounted for 67.3%, ▲the problematic game user group* 3.5%, and ▲the adaptive game user group** 11.9%. (*Problematic game users group: Game users group with over-immersion problems in-game use regardless of game literacy score, **Adaptive game users group: Games that use games well in a positive way and do not have over-immersion problems Lee Yong-gun)
On the other hand, compared to adolescents, the proportion of children who use adaptive games was significantly lower. As a result of the survey on children, ▲ 68.8% of the game users group, ▲ 31.2% of the non-use group, ▲62.7% of the general user group, ▲3.1% of the problem game user group, and ▲3.0% of the adaptive game user group among game users. In the adaptive game user group, there was a big difference from that of adolescents.
In the case of the children’s survey, parents’ observation responses were also investigated in parallel, considering the difficulty in understanding the questionnaire responses and questions. ▲ Parents observed 81.2% of the children’s game-use group, and there was a difference between the parental observation response (81.2%) and the child’s own response (68.8%).
◆ Parents’ perceptions have been shown to affect the characteristics of game behaviors of children and adolescents.
As a result of investigating parents’ awareness, conversation, and understanding of children’s game use, it was found that most parents were aware of their children’s game use and communicated with them. However, as a result of asking about the degree of parents’ understanding of adolescents’ game use, there was a big difference between 54.7% of the adaptive game user group and 37.7% of the problematic game user group who responded ‘very much (very understand)’.
In the case of children, there was a large difference in the rate of ‘very agree (very understandable)’ between the adaptive game user group and the problematic game user group in the degree of parental conversation and understanding of game use. (Refer to the attached data for data by each user group)
According to the results of the survey, just as parents’ awareness and interest in their children affect education, peer relationships, and growth environment, it was found that parents’ positive perceptions of their children’s game use have an impact on their children’s game behavior type characteristics. Therefore, it is judged that it is important for parents to understand that games are a hobby for children and adolescents and a medium of communication with their peers and actively engage in conversations.
The ‘2022 Comprehensive Survey on Children and Youth Game Behavior’ report contains various information on game use and behavioral patterns of children and youth nationwide. Anyone interested in the report can download it from the KOCCA website (www.kocca.kr).
