Thursday, August 7, 2014

Small Doses of Video Gaming are Good for Kids

Small Doses of Video Gaming are Good for Kids


We often worry about the impact playing computer games has on the development of children, but now new research suggests that gaming might not be as bad for them as we thought. In fact, not only was it found that young people who play video games for between one and three hours a day experience no effect whatsoever on how adjusted they are, but small doses of electronic gaming could actually be good for them.


The Oxford University study, published in the journal Pediatrics , asked almost 5,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 15 years old about their gaming habits. They found that 75% of those questioned play video games every day, who were then asked to describe how much gaming time they indulged in on a typical school day.


The young people were then asked to rate their satisfaction with their lives, how well they get on with their peers, how likely they are to help a person in difficulty and their levels of inattention and hyperactivity.


When compared with the group who didn’t play games at all and those who spent more than an hour, or more than three hours playing, those who reported spending less than an hour a day on video games were likely to be happier with their lives and socially interact in a positive way. This group also appeared to enjoy better relationships with their friends, fewer emotional problems and less hyperactivity than the other groups.


However, those who gamed for more than three hours a day reported lower life satisfaction and - confirming what parents have been saying to their kids for years - were the least well-adjusted group, showing that things truly are better in moderation.


Dr Andrew Przybylski, an experimental psychologist and study lead author, explained that the effects that video gaming have on young people can also be altered by other factors such as home life, relationships and the community in which they are a part of.


“High levels of video game playing appear to be only weakly linked to children’s behavioural problems in the real world,” Dr Przybylski added. “Likewise, the small, positive effects we observed for low levels of play on electronic games do not support the idea that video games on their own can help children develop in an increasingly digital world.”


He concluded that more research needs to be carried out to find out what it is about video games that make them more harmful or beneficial than others, while also investigating the influences of young people's social environments.


So, next time you are thinking about how much time to allow your child to spend on their games console, remember that up to three hours a day doesn’t have any negative (or positive) effect on them, but spending up to an hour engrossed in a video game could actually be good for them.

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