relationship between internet gaming patterns, game genres, and gaming psychological motivations among students

Background :understanding the factors shaping students' tendencies toward online gaming patterns is crucial for addressing psychological and educational challenges. objectives :the present study aimed to examine how internet gaming patterns, preferred genres, and psychological motivations are related to students' experiences in tehran. materials and methods :a descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design was used to examine these relationships. this descriptive cross-sectional study recruited 708 students (248 girls and 460 boys; ages 12 - 18) from tehran using convenience sampling in 2023 - 2024. data were collected via a structured questionnaire assessing internet gaming addiction, psychological motivations for gaming, and a genres checklist. the sample size was determined using cochran's formula (n = 708) with a 95% confidence level (z = 1.96) and 0.05 margin of error, accounting for a 10% anticipated dropout. analyses included chi-square tests, anova, brown-forsythe tests, stepwise linear regression, and tukey's post hoc tests, with significance set at p < 0.05. analyses were performed in spss version 26. results :significant genre effects on motivation emerged (p < 0.05). action and strategic genres yielded the highest motivation and engagement, with large between-genre contrasts. social-emotional patterns showed substantial explained 46% of variance, driven by escape (β ≈ 0.66) and coping (β ≈ 0.40), controlling for age and gender. academic-professional patterns explained 42%, with escape (β ≈ 0.65) and coping (β ≈ 0.53); skill contributed (β ≈ 0.34). all predictors were significant at p < 0.05. across patterns, escape produced the largest effect (r ≈ 0.64; 0.66). coping, imaging, and skill showed moderate-to-high associations (social-emotional: r ≈ 0.40 - 0.66; academic-professional: r ≈ 0.55 - 0.64). entertainment links were weaker but significant (≈ 0.35 - 0.36; p < 0.05). overall, effect sizes ranged mid-to-high (approximately r or β ≈ 0.40 - 0.66) with meaningful variance explained. conclusions :the findings highlight targets for prevention and school-based interventions that address underlying psychological motivations, social context, and family dynamics to reduce problematic gaming. interventions should promote healthy coping strategies, digital literacy, and time management, with a focus on engaging parents, training teachers, and expanding accessible support services to mitigate adverse academic and social outcomes and foster resilience, and responsible technology use among students.