Video games and the effects on children and their behavior.

[Plainview]

The British Medical Journal released a publication about a study conducted for 10 years about how TV and video games affects a child's behavior. Study has found mixed findings in how TV and video games, violent games also researched, as it relates to a child. Full publication can be found here.

Background
Screen entertainment for young children has been associated with several aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Most research is from North America and focuses on television. Few longitudinal studies have compared the effects of TV and electronic games, or have investigated gender differences.

Purpose
To explore how time watching TV and playing electronic games at age 5 years each predicts change in psychosocial adjustment in a representative sample of 7 year-olds from the UK.

Methods
Typical daily hours viewing television and playing electronic games at age 5 years were reported by mothers of 11 014 children from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention and prosocial behaviour were reported by mothers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Change in adjustment from age 5 years to 7 years was regressed on screen exposures; adjusting for family characteristics and functioning, and child characteristics.

Results
Watching TV for 3 h or more at 5 years predicted a 0.13 point increase (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24) in conduct problems by 7 years, compared with watching for under an hour, but playing electronic games was not associated with conduct problems. No associations were found between either type of screen time and emotional symptoms, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems or prosocial behaviour. There was no evidence of gender differences in the effect of screen time.

Conclusions
TV but not electronic games predicted a small increase in conduct problems. Screen time did not predict other aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Further work is required to establish causal mechanisms.

What is already known on this topic

• High screen time has been linked with behavioural and emotional problems in children, although findings have not all been consistent.
• Most longitudinal studies have focused on television and almost all have been conducted in North America.
• Few studies have examined TV and electronic games separately to see whether they have similar effects.

What this study adds

• Watching TV for 3 h or more daily at 5 years predicted increasing conduct problems between the ages of 5 years and 7 years.
• No effects of TV at 5 years were found on hyperactivity/inattention, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems or prosocial behaviour.
• Playing electronic games at 5 years was not associated with increased risk of problems.

 

[Andy]

Interesting! Thanks for posting. I'll have to pore over this later...

 

[DriedMangoes]

Did they expand on the type of electronic games that were used in this study? i.e. violent, action, educational etc.

 

[Plainview]

Did they expand on the type of electronic games that were used in this study? i.e. violent, action, educational etc.

Yes first page.

 

[DriedMangoes]

Yes first page.

Hm, I must be blind but I can't seem to find the part where they talk about which type of games were observed by the children in this study.

 

[Plainview]

Hm, I must be blind but I can't seem to find the part where they talk about which type of games were observed by the children in this study.

Very bottom of the page "introduction." The talk about violent content.

 

[Andy]

PV, they're just discussing hypotheses in the literature, there. If they discussed the type of games, it would be under Methods, but there's nothing there.

Hm, I must be blind but I can't seem to find the part where they talk about which type of games were observed by the children in this study.

Yeah, I'm just skimming it, but I don't think they separated out what type of (genre of) games they studied. It was 5 to 7 year olds, and you've got to assume it was age-appropriate stuff, not GTA or something real violent. So these are going to be pretty innocuous titles. If so, then this is probably a better test of whether gaming interferes with the development of cognitive abilities (e.g., "makes you ADD") -- or maybe interferes with socialization -- rather than predisposes to aggression.

 

[DriedMangoes]

Very bottom of the page "introduction." The talk about violent content.

Yeah, I read that but that just talks about what effects games could have in general. I was talking about the type of games observed in this particular cohort study and if the authors elaborated on which type of games were being played by the children to formulate their results and discussion sections. Or did they just generalize all game types into one to simplify their results.

 

[DriedMangoes]

PV, they're just discussing hypotheses in the literature, there. If they discussed the type of games, it would be under Methods, but there's nothing there.



Yeah, I'm just skimming it, but I don't think they separated out what type of (genre of) games they studied. It was 5 to 7 year olds, and you've got to assume it was age-appropriate stuff, not GTA or something real violent. So these are going to be pretty innocuous titles. If so, then this is probably a better test of whether gaming interferes with the development of cognitive abilities (e.g., "makes you ADD") -- or maybe interferes with socialization -- rather than predisposes to aggression.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I mean playing an educational game for this particular age range would (hopefully) not stimulate any potential or aggressive behaviours in the future.

 

[Plainview]

Yeah, I read that but that just talks about what effects games could have in general. I was talking about the type of games observed in this particular cohort study and if the authors elaborated on which type of games were being played by the children to formulate their results and discussion sections. Or did they just generalize all game types into one to simplify their results.

I believe they just surmised for the publication as I don't see any specific games mentioned. There are citations to other publications that may cite specific video games used.

 

[Andy]

Well, they're surveying 11,000 mothers, so it's whatever those mothers are letting their kids play. It's not a controlled experiment, so the researchers don't have control of the games being selected. I don't imagine they even gathered that kind of data (e.g., what games is Johnny playing, exactly, and for how long). Would be too cumbersome.

 

[XBoxNeo]

So games and TV are bad for extremely young (under 5) children. I already knew that.

Also using the computer for long hours makes a person a dull wit while communicating in meat space. That's true regardless of age.

ADHD is most commonly used by boring school teachers to deflect criticism of their crap teaching abilities.

 

[Cody32599]

They should do a study on the children that have parents that use TV and video games as a baby sitter and children of parents that use TV and video games as a reward.

They also should include children that play video games but have no other activities like sports and music/art compared to children that play video games but have a full slate of sports/music/art they also do.

If they didn't do this and just lumped them all together than it is useless.

 

[IdleHands]

I used to not believe that video games or tv could influence behavior. Then I met my 10 year old nephew. Now, he is autistic so that could account for some of it but the kid straight up uses violence to solve all his problems and constantly asks for guns and knives for bday/xmas gifts so he can, and I quote "kill stupid mother f*ckers". His parents are the worst type. Sure they clothe and feed him, make sure he goes to school, but that's where it ends. Everything else? Well, he does whatever the hell he pleases.

He's going to end up in prison or some home by the time he's 18, I just hope it's not for killing his brother which is quite likely.

 

[Andy]

Idle: Yipes, that sounds like a kid headed toward disaster.

Cody: it's useful for answering the question they were asking (all other things being equal, does amount of videogaming lead to decrements in socialization, cognitive skills, etc.). You've got a different question; so did Dried Mangos. Good questions, but different than the ones these guys asked. Doesn't mean this study is useless; just limited.

 

[Cody32599]

Idle: Yipes, that sounds like a kid headed toward disaster.

Cody: it's useful for answering the question they were asking (all other things being equal, does amount of videogaming lead to decrements in socialization, cognitive skills, etc.). You've got a different question; so did Dried Mangos. Good questions, but different than the ones these guys asked. Doesn't mean this study is useless; just limited.

I guess I agree with you that the study is just limited but if they don't take into account how the child is being raised...doesn't the study then become flawed?

 

[Andy]

I guess I agree with you that the study is just limited but if they don't take into account how the child is being raised...doesn't the study then become flawed?

I wouldn't say "flawed," just limited. The more variables you try to include, the weaker your ability to detect actual effects becomes. So researchers stick to one or two main variables (usually ones that they can measure easily, like time spent playing games) and leave the rest off the table (or for future research).

All research, especially in this area, is limited. It doesn't measure every variable or account for every interaction. It can't. There are tons of potentially interesting variables and interactions, but research budgets are limited. If you had a billion dollar grant, you might be able to design a perfect 10-year study that would capture all the relevant variables and have enough subjects and enough statistical power to detect effects. But no one has a billion dollars and 10 years for that kind of study. So instead, we get piecemeal studies like this, and we try to assemble them into an overall picture.

 

[IdleHands]

Idle: Yipes, that sounds like a kid headed toward disaster.

Yup. Thankfully I sold most of my firearms after my move to Vegas. I still have two handguns in my home, both in a solid safe with trigger locks. Still, I plan to get back into hunting next fall and plan on buying another pistol (soooo want a sig 9mm), a 22 rifle (for plinking at the range) and a good 30.06 hunting rifle. But first I'll need to buy a bigger safe made for long guns, simply because I can't trust that kid around firearms.

ATM he has no clue that I own a single firearm and the way I was raised around them is to teach children the dangers of firearms and how to act around them, but I can't even mention them around him or he'll try to get into them.

My older nephew turns 13 next month. He's going to get firearms safety training and a 22 rifle of his own for his birthday. The weapon will stay with me though until he's 18.

 

[Andy]

Yup. Thankfully I sold most of my firearms after my move to Vegas. I still have two handguns in my home, both in a solid safe with trigger locks. Still, I plan to get back into hunting next fall and plan on buying another pistol (soooo want a sig 9mm), a 22 rifle (for plinking at the range) and a good 30.06 hunting rifle. But first I'll need to buy a bigger safe made for long guns, simply because I can't trust that kid around firearms.

ATM he has no clue that I own a single firearm and the way I was raised around them is to teach children the dangers of firearms and how to act around them, but I can't even mention them around him or he'll try to get into them.

My older nephew turns 13 next month. He's going to get firearms safety training and a 22 rifle of his own for his birthday. The weapon will stay with me though until he's 18.

Yeah, sounds like he's headed for a more restrictive environment, one way or the other (group home vs. prison). I hope no one gets hurt along the way. I have a nephew sort of like him, and he ended up victimizing his younger brother. Not good, not good at all...

 

[Z A C K]

Just give the kid GTA to play with; that'll keep em busy.

 

[IdleHands]

Yeah, sounds like he's headed for a more restrictive environment, one way or the other (group home vs. prison). I hope no one gets hurt along the way. I have a nephew sort of like him, and he ended up victimizing his younger brother. Not good, not good at all...

That sucks, sorry to hear it. Did the younger brother come out of it relatively okay? Sure hope so.

 

[Andy]

That sucks, sorry to hear it. Did the younger brother come out of it relatively okay? Sure hope so.

Too early to tell...