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A recent study in the journal Pediatrics, led by Douglas Gentile, psychologist at Iowa State University, revealed that compulsive gaming can cause and reinforce depression and anxiety in children. The study was done with children in Grades 3!!, 4, 7 and 8. The researchers discovered that 83 per cent of the 3034 children in the study played video games at least now and then.
The compulsive gamers played for 31 average hours a week. The non-patholgical gamers played for 19 hours. It was clear to the researchers that compulsive gaming wasn't merely a symptom of depression and anxiety, but actually caused those disorders. They also discovered that kids who stopped their compulsive gaming during the study showed lower levels of depression, anxiety and social phobia compared with the kids who didn't stop.
How does this pertain to you and your children? How does this tie in with 2 and 3-year olds being allowed to play with their parents hand-held devices? How does this tie in with schools providing I-pads to their students? How does this tie in with the possibility of increasingly disconnected generations of young people?
How can you spot gaming addiction in your child? What can you do? I'll address the role of parents and guardians in helping their children and charges in the next post. Addiction is addiction. Your first step in taking care of your addicted child is knowing how to spot that the fun has stopped and addiction has taken over. A clue: what is your relationship with your Blackberry, I-Phone, I-Pad? And I do mean relationship.
photo from: Blogging Innovation
