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The popularity of interactive video games has caused concern among parents, educators and policy makers about how games affect children and adolescents. Most research on the effects of gambling on young people has focused on problem gambling and on the negative effects such as aggression, anxiety and depression. A new longitudinal study conducted in Norway examined the impact of video games on the social skills of children from 6 to 12 years old. Games have been found to affect young people differently depending on age and bad, but games in general have not been badociated with social development. However, the authors found that 10-year-old girls who play games often had fewer social skills than 12-year-old girls than girls who played less often.
The findings come from researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NTNU Social Research, the University of California at Davis and St. Olav's Hospital in. Norway. They are published in Development of the child, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
"Our study could alleviate some concerns about the adverse effects of games on children's development," says Beate Wold Hygen, postdoctoral researcher at NTNU and NTNU Social Research, who led the study. "It may not be the game itself that deserves our attention, but the reasons why some kids and teens spend a lot of time playing games."
The researchers studied 873 Norwegian youth from various socio-economic backgrounds every two years, for six years, from 6 to 12 years. Children (aged 10 to 12) and parents (children aged 6 to 8). how long did young people spend playing video games – using tablets, personal computers, game consoles and phones? Youth teachers completed questionnaires on the social skills of children and adolescents, including measures of cooperation, badertiveness and self-control. And the young people told researchers how often they played with their friends.
The researchers took into account several factors:
- Gender, because boys tend to spend more time playing than girls and are more likely to demonstrate lower social skills;
- Socio-economic status, as young people from less advantaged families are more likely to suffer from problems that affect social competence;
- Body mbad index (BMI), because a high BMI for girls is badociated with more games and young people with a high BMI tend to have more problems with social competence, and
- Time for youth to play with friends, as those who play games with friends have more opportunities to socialize than youth who play alone or online with strangers.
The results of the study suggest that:
- The time boys spent playing did not affect their social development.
- Girls who spent more time playing video games at the age of 10 developed weaker social skills two years later than girls who spent less time playing games.
- Girls who play video games can be more socially isolated and have fewer opportunities to practice social skills with other girls, which can affect their subsequent social competence.
- Children with social difficulties at ages 8 and 10 were more likely to spend more time playing video games at 10 and 12 years of age.
"It may be that low social competence motivates the tendency of young people to play video games for long periods of time," suggests Lars Wichstrøm, professor of psychology at NTNU, who co-wrote the study. "That is, young people who are socially struggling might be more inclined to play games to satisfy their need for belonging and their desire to master, because the game is easily accessible and can be less complicated for them than face-to-face interactions. "
The authors of the study cautioned that youth in the study provided researchers with limited average playing time, and that the measure of play, as reported by the youth and his parents, could be imperfect given the difficulty of estimating the time spent playing. video games.
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The study was funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the Liaison Committee between the Regional Health Authority of Central Norway and the NTNU.
Summary of Development of the child, Time spent playing and social competence in children: reciprocal effects on childhood by Hygen, BW (Norwegian University of Science and Technology [NTNU] and NTNU Social Research, Belsky, J (University of California, Davis), Stenseng, F (NTNU), Kvande, MN (NTNU), Skalicka, V (NTNU), Zahl-Thanem, T (NTNU Social Research and NTNU), and Wichstrøm, L (NTNU Social Research, NTNU and St. Olav's Hospital). Copyright 2019 The Child Development Research Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
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