Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
Iconsidered many titles for this short review. It could have read “Gaming Improves Mental Health of Teenagers” – that may have garnered a few more clicks – not stricly true though. It could also have read “Gaming Has No Impacts on Mental Health of Teenagers”, however, the data can be seen in two ways.
So, I settled on the simple question so as not to mislead too much. But the long and short of it is that we do not need to be overly concerned with gaming rotting our kids’ brains, causing emotional withdrawal, and a host of mental health problems. In the vast majority of cases there is no impact and in a sizable proportion heavy gaming seem to improve mental health! So, let’s dig into what this study did and didn’t find.
This data comes from the 2021 OxWell survey which analysis data from surveys of school children between 12 and 18 in the UK. This dataset had 12’725 participants. And what did they find?
They found that:
- 31.2% play games for at least 3.5 hours a day – this is the “heavy gamer” group
- There was no significant correlation between playing games and mental health issues
- 8% reported not gaming
- They classified 6 types of gamers
- 8% were classed as maladaptive (i.e. experience negative effects)
So, on average no real cause for concern. However, there are some surprising and worrying results also. One surprising result is that 44% of heavy gamers experienced higher well being than those who games less or not at all. Who would have though it? On the negative side there is, indeed, a subgroup who do experience negative effects. A small proportion of the heavy gamers experience a loss of control and wellbeing issues.
A notable subgroup was the 2% who are classed as maladaptive phone gamers, playing mostly on their phone, being mostly female, and are more likely to have experienced abuse and other traumatic events. This seems to point that traumatic life experience are pushing some individuals to maladaptive behaviours – and this also opens the door to intervening and being able to identify these and hence also pre-empt the issues.
It therefore seems that gaming is not the cause of mental health issues but can contribute to underlying issues. Of course, the argument could also be that gaming reduces other activities and so can also over longer terms have a negative impact. However, I reported here that those who spent most time on social media were also most social in person – also a surprise. Whether this translates over to gaming, I don’t know, but good to know at least.
But for now, we know that gaming shouldn’t be a worry for parents or others in society, but we do need to be able to identify and support those who are prone to maladaptive behaviours – be that in gaming, or other areas.
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
References
Simona Skripkauskaite et al
Time Spent Gaming, Device Type, Addiction Scores, and Well-being of Adolescent English Gamers in the 2021 OxWell Survey: Latent Profile Analysis”
JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting, 18.11.2022
https://pediatrics.jmir.org/2022/4/e41480/
More Quick Hits
Learning at double-speed?
Quick HitsDaily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences ouldn’t it be great if we could learn things double speed? Well, maybe we can. At least according to a study out of the University of California. During the pandemic many...
The “drunken monkey” hypothesis – proven
This had to be a story I covered – monkeys and alcohol sounds too good to pass up. But this is also linked to the “drunken monkey” hypothesis: that humans developed their love for alcohol in earlier primitive times accidentally, and then intentionally, eating fruit...
The Newly Discovered Bias That Makes Us Think We Are More Diverse Than We Are
A few weeks ago I reported on some newly discovered ways we are biased namely that we consider generic terms such as “people” as equivalent to “men” rather than men and women. This was specifically focused on gender bias but this latest piece recently published shows...
Self-awareness of autism leads to better quality of life
Autism has become a well-known diagnosis in recent years. Though some people seem to be against this sort of labelling, and the general increase in different label of mental conditions, a study out of the University of Portsmouth shows why this is actually a good...
Optimal sleep improves your brain, mental, and physical health - and it’s not as much as you think
I’ve reported multiple times on sleep and how it affects just about everything form cognitive performance, to brain plasticity, to physical performance, to mental health, and to metabolism. The question...
No change for a century – children’s backgrounds still predict the same educational outcomes
Educational opportunities have changed dramatically for children over the last century – schools have changed, and college and university admissions have grown. Or so we might think at least. But according to a study out of the University of York, that is not the...