Attention parents: video games can help kids become straight-A geniuses.
Previous studies have mostly highlighted the negative affects of video games such as increasing sedentary lifestyle and violent behavior in kids. However, new research has linked video games to some pretty surprising benefits like greater intellect and better grades.
Researchers from Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and Paris Descartes University wanted to see how video games influenced mental health as well as cognitive and social skills in children aged 6 to 11 years old.
For the study, researchers looked at data from 3,195 students participating in the School Children Mental Health Europe project. Researchers noted that children's mental health was assessed through answers from questionnaires filled out by parents, teachers and children themselves. Video game usage was measured based on reports from parents and academic success was measured based on reports from teachers.
Study results revealed that high video game usage corresponded with nearly twice the odds of high intellectual functioning and high overall school competence. The findings held true even after accounting for child age, gender, and number of children.
"Once adjusted for child age and gender, number of children, mothers age, marital status, education, employment status, psychological distress, and region, high usage was associated with 1.75 times the odds of high intellectual functioning, and 1.88 times the odds of high overall school competence," researchers wrote in the study.
Researchers noted that there were no significant differences found between video game usage and mental health based on child self reports as well as mother and teacher reports.
"Once controlled for high usage predictors, there were no significant associations with any child self-reported or mother- or teacher-reported mental health problems," researchers explained.
However, researchers did find significant differences between video game usage and social relationships with high usage being "associated with decreases in peer relationship problems and in prosocial deficits."
"Video game playing is often a collaborative leisure time activity for school-aged children. These results indicate that children who frequently play video games may be socially cohesive with peers and integrated into the school community. We caution against over interpretation, however, as setting limits on screen usage remains and important component of parental responsibility as an overall strategy for student success," explained researcher Katherine M. Keyes, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health.
"Playing video games may have positive effects on young children. Understanding the mechanisms through which video game use may stimulate children should be further investigated," researchers concluded in the study.
The findings are published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.
