Video Gaming and Children's Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study.

Lobel A; Engels RC; Stone LL; Burk WJ; Granic I

doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0646-z

Back

Journal article

Video Gaming and Children's Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study.

Lobel A Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Chemin des Mines 9, Geneva, 1202, Switzerland. Adam@AdamLobel.com.
Engels RC Trimbos Institute, Da Costakade 45, Utrecht, 3521VS, Netherlands.
Stone LL Overwaal, Centre for Anxiety Disorders, Pro Persona Tarweweg, Nijmegen, 6534AM, Netherlands.
Burk WJ Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Montessorilaan, Nijmegen, 6525HR, Netherlands.
Granic I Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Montessorilaan, Nijmegen, 6525HR, Netherlands.

2017-02-23

Published in:

Journal of youth and adolescence. - 2017

English The effects of video games on children's psychosocial development remain the focus of debate. At two timepoints, 1 year apart, 194 children (7.27-11.43 years old; male = 98) reported their gaming frequency, and their tendencies to play violent video games, and to game (a) cooperatively and (b) competitively; likewise, parents reported their children's psychosocial health. Gaming at time one was associated with increases in emotion problems. Violent gaming was not associated with psychosocial changes. Cooperative gaming was not associated with changes in prosocial behavior. Finally, competitive gaming was associated with decreases in prosocial behavior, but only among children who played video games with high frequency. Thus, gaming frequency was related to increases in internalizing but not externalizing, attention, or peer problems, violent gaming was not associated with increases in externalizing problems, and for children playing approximately 8 h or more per week, frequent competitive gaming may be a risk factor for decreasing prosocial behavior. We argue that replication is needed and that future research should better distinguish between different forms of gaming for more nuanced and generalizable insight.

Language