Effects of Mobile Gaming on the Psychosocial Development of Pupils

Mobile gaming, linked to the effects of student behavior is currently the subject of increasing interest and concern. This is especially true of teachers, parents and the Pacifico O. Aquino elementary school community in Noveleta, Cavite.

This poses problems with the effects of mobile gaming on the psychosocial development of pupils. Apparently, they face a crisis in their own development of life, and it is important that they perform well in their studies in order to have a good and positive outlook on life and become better individuals someday.

Teachers have observed that students playing mobile games are most likely to forget that they are in the real world. They put themselves on the characters they were playing, making them the hero they wanted. Virtually they win battles, and these give new and challenging experiences that may cause some struggles to balance things because they are so engrossed with the characters they are in. For example, some of the games are online electronic betting games using a mobile app that puts students at risk (Mercado, 2020). As signed by the President of the Philippines, the Executive Order No. 13 stated that these online mobile games are illegal. Parents are concerned about their children moving from being a child to becoming an adult, which underlines the need to adjust to psychosocial development and would make a lot of changes and negatively affect them.

As the industry has changed, the picture of mobile gaming has also changed. Games are already on mobile phones, the internet, commercials, not to mention television commercials on the latest software and hardware on mobile games, which are even supported by celebrities (Redmond, 2017).

According to Sutton (2020), mobile gaming at the stage of psychosocial development creates conflict and crisis that an individual needs to overcome in order to move successfully to the next stage of life.

Conflict is a turning point where each person faces a struggle to achieve a specific crisis, sometimes referred to as a psychosocial crisis, which can be a time of vulnerability, but also a time of strength as people work towards success or failure (Kendra, 2020).

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of mobile gaming on the psychosocial development of pupils at Pacifico O. Aquino Elementary School during the academic year 2019-2020.