African-Immigrant Students in the United States: Making Meaning of Video Game Play in Their Lives

• In Event: 66.057 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 66.057-18 - Messages From the Diaspora: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Immigrant Youth

Abstract

Despite the popularity of video games and the growing literature on video games, few studies have investigated African-immigrant students’ video gameplay. This study explores the video gameplay of African students at a higher education institution in the United States. From the uses and gratification theory we present the meaning of video gameplay among undergraduate African students in the United States. In so doing, the research explains the motivations for video gameplay among undergraduate-African immigrant students. The findings highlight African undergraduate students’ needs and the means they found to satisfy them. The results also demonstrate that video gameplay is a resource that supports these students’ psychological and emotional needs intensified by the rigor of higher education learning experience.

Authors

• Rebecca Yvonne Bayeck, The Pennsylvania State University

• Joseph Merlin Bayeck, Goucher College

• Stella O Onyeagbako, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria