Characteristics of social and virtual identity among digital generation students with a high level of gaming involvement

Abstract

The article examines the social identity of digital generation students with different levels of involvement in computer games. Various approaches to studying social and virtual identity are analyzed, and the relationship between these constructs is considered. The results of an empirical study of social and virtual identity among students with varying levels of gaming involvement are presented. The aim of the study is to identify the features of social and virtual identity manifestation among digital generation students with different degrees of gaming involvement. The study included 191 male students aged 17 to 21 from the International University of Information Technologies in Almaty. The following methods were used: the Social Identity Research Method (MISI) by L. B. Schneider (2007); the Russian-language version of “The nine-item Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (IGDS9-SF)” by Pontes & Griffiths (2015), adapted by Petrov A.A. and Chernyak N.B.; and the Virtual Identity Status Assessment Method (author: M. V. Klementyeva, 2024). The results showed that 38.7% of respondents demonstrated an achieved (mature) social identity, while 32.5% had an achieved virtual identity. Cluster analysis revealed differences in the “Social Risks and Vulnerability” cluster, represented by words such as “danger,” “harmfulness,” “dependency,” “uncertainty,” and others, indicating perceived threats to social identity among students with high gaming involvement. The differences were statistically significant according to the Mann–Whitney U test.