Psychology: does gaming really cause bad behaviour?

The large amount of time young people spend playing computer and video games has provoked something of a moral panic in some quarters, including fears that it could increase antisocial behaviour and emotional problems among boys in particular. Others see benefits from electronic gaming in strengthening spatial reasoning, critical thinking and even morality.

Unfortunately, the research basis for scientific statements about the effect of video games is very weak. For ethical and practical reasons it is impossible to carry out long-term controlled studies in which children are split into groups playing games of different types for different amounts of time over months or years. Instead, we have poor-quality observational studies, often based on self-reporting by adolescents, that researchers are realising may be biased by "mischievous responders" who exaggerate aspects of their behaviour and psychological distress.

An interesting new study by Andrew Przybylski and Allison Mishkin of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford university relies on schoolteachers rather than children or parents to assess behaviour. It finds a link between the amount of time spent playing games and social and academic performance. Those who play for more than three hours a day are more likely to be hyperactive, aggressive and uninterested in their school work than children who are less engaged in gaming. But some electronic play seems to be beneficial: teachers gave lower ratings to non-gamers than to those who played for an hour or two a day.

Unlike the time spent playing, the type of game played had little effect. There was no association between violent games and real-life aggression or academic performance. Children who played strategy and puzzle games were no more sociable and performed no better at school than those who preferred other types.

The study, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, involved 25 teachers and 217 pupils aged 12 or 13 at one school in southeast England. The teacher who had most personal contact with each student assessed his or her academic performance, helpfulness, rowdiness and aggression. These assessments were matched with pupils' responses to questions about the type of games they played and for how long.

Though parents should pay attention to the amount of time their children play computer games - and try to prevent this exceeding three hours a day - the results are reassuring, according to Przybylski, and do not support the more alarming claims about the effect of gaming on adolescents.

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