The Relationship Between Game Addiction and Self-Handicapping, Anxiety Sensitivity, and Alexithymia Among University Students

The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the relationship between levels of game addiction and self-handicapping, anxiety sensitivity, and alexithymia in university students and to determine the predictive power of these variables on game addiction. The relationship between these variables has been examined using the data obtained from a sample of 222 participants (144 female and 78 male). Findings showed that self-handicapping (weak positive correlation r = .21, p < .01), anxiety sensitivity (moderate positive correlation r = .32, p < .01), and alexithymia (moderate positive correlation r = .34, p < .01) have a significant relationship with game addiction. The whole model consisting of self-handicapping, the cognitive, physical, and social sub-dimensions of anxiety sensitivity, the identifying feelings, describing feelings, and extrovert-oriented thinking sub-dimensions of alexithymia was found to be explaining 19% of the variance of the game addiction (F (7, 186) = 6.30, p < .01). The "describing feelings" sub-dimension of alexithymia, one of the predictor variables, contributes to the model in a statistically significant (beta=.28, t = 3.03, p < .01) manner. According to the results of this research, individuals facing difficulties in describing their feelings can be said to be a risk group in terms of game addiction.